In the burning attic of a Spanish palace, 42 copper engravings - a deaf artist's gift to a young Duchess - melt to a bubbled lump. Many years later, these metal images are recreated, the story they told reconstructed through the memory of an unusual narrator, the Duchess's own pet monkey, who appears in all 42 engravings. They tell of a love affair between the artist - partially based on the Spanish painter Goya - and the Duchess.(added to from the cover of the paperback edition, published by Phoenix House)