Noel Winters lives a solitary life in fear of a marauding cat, and in love with that which he will never call his own. His only comfort, in the singular mystery of his existence, is his uncommon calling as a keeper - a "String Man" - as he is called by one who seeks to unravel his secrets. Haunt the recesses of the little gray house, where lives are threaded through eyelets, and future and past are woven in tapestry by the metallic acicula of the Great Machine.