"Orphan Lili Daurier joins a carnival and falls under the spell of its star, a suave magician. But it is the show's crippled, embittered puppeteer who truly loves Lili, a love he can express only through his puppets"--Container.

A disgraced children's puppeteer returns to his dilapidated childhood home and lecherous stepfather, intent on destroying a hideously malformed spider-puppet he carries with him in a brown leather case. His mind flooded with painful half-memories and nightmarish visions, he soon finds himself embroiled in a local investigation for a missing boy, progressively unsure of what's real and what's not. All the while the spider seems to mock his suffering...