Christopher Grahme is the foremost children's author of his age, yet what began as a simple bedtime story told to his own children has grown into a formidable commercial success and the pressure is beginning to take its toll. Chris is revisited by the crippling headaches and blackouts that plagued his childhood and he slips back into the realm of Castrolvalva, a fantastical domain he dreamt up as a boy to while away his illness. But Castrolvalva has changed, the innocent product of his youthful imagination has become a surreal nightmare of mud, blood and barbed wire as it is torn apart by a war that seems to be happening in his own mind!