An essential classic about the awakening of sexuality and female rebellion, which generation after generation is rediscovered by readers around the world. One night, Melanie walks through the garden in her mother's wedding dress, and the next morning, her whole world has been shattered. So simple, so inconceivable. Melanie and her two little brothers will be forced to move to London, to the house of Uncle Philip, a sullen and brilliant toy artisan who lives with his wife Margaret – a woman "fragile as a pressed flower", mute since their wedding day. – and her two flamboyant siblings. After an idyllic childhood in the family home, Melanie is now confined to an oppressive and delusional environment, full of gadgets and mechanisms created by her uncle, a disturbing being accustomed to treating people as if they were other puppets. she.