A day spent locked in a room by border officials without any explanation as to why. A riddle that seemingly has no answer: A phone call from a college friend who hasn't been in touch in years.  And all of it is somehow inextricably linked to the life of a young blacksmith hounded from her trade and branded a vagrant nearly 500 years ago. Award-winning author Ali Smith shines a guiding light through the nightmarish now with a provocative novel that intertwines our atomized present and the uncannily parallel era of the Black Plague. In the hope that our medieval past may unlock the answers we seek to understand our hazy future, is a kaleidoscope of human history and experience, and a stunning addition to Smith's gorgeous canon.