"In this second book of Davies' trilogy, David Staunton, the son of Percy Boyd Staunton, travels to Switzerland. He is traumatized by his father's strange death and his own unhappy childhood. Although David is a lawyer, he is a rootless and unhappy failure. David decides on Jungian analysis as a possible answer to his troubles. However, while in Switzerland, he encounters the heiress Liesl, the hagiographer Ramsay, and the magician Magnus Eisengrim. All three are closely connected to his own past and to the death of his father. As David continues with his therapy, a recurring image of the manticore - a creature with the head of a man, the tail of a scorpion, and the body of a lion - emerges repeatedly. David must try to cope with his own past and with his father's cruelty and abuse as he tries to unravel the mysteries surrounding his family"