Michael Bishop is a gifted inventor, whose daughter Eva is the newest victim of an incurable magical plague. His only hope is a desperate bargain with a magician that will let him sacrifice his own life to save her, in exchange for his life's work: a steam-powered mechanical man. But the spell backfires, trapping his soul in the frail body of his clockwork creation and leaving Eva uncured.

Unable to speak and too weak to fight, Michael can do nothing when the magician arrives to claim not only the golem, but Eva as well, for some unknown purpose. Now, trapped in the magician's manor, it's a race against time as Michael searches for a way to cure his daughter before it's too late, even as he feels his own humanity slipping away a little each day.