In 1945, fourteen-year-old Nathaniel and his sister Rachel are left behind by their parents in London. The mysterious moth that has taken them under its wing, along with its eccentric friends, takes care of them with great affection. But who are these people really? And what does it mean that their mother returns after a long silence, seemingly out of nowhere? "My sins are many," she repeats, revealing nothing more. As he grows up, Nathaniel begins to uncover his mother's secret past as a spy during the Cold War. Twenty-five years after "The English Patient," Michael Ondaatje has written a new masterpiece.