The Golěm limps through snowy Prague in heavy platform boots and a long black cloak, fighting a sensation he calls “the Ether” that threatens to overtake him. When it thickens, he presses a small metal rod against his clay-covered skull and rubs in circles until the feeling disperses.

Crossing the deserted Old Town Square, tourists recoil at his clay-smeared face and the three Hebrew letters etched into his forehead: אמת (EMET, “Truth”). The Golěm reflects that Truth brought him to Prague and that Dr. Brigita Gessner has just confessed to atrocities connected to a secret project deep beneath the city.

Believing what is planned next is even worse, the Golěm forms a plan to act quickly and destroy the underground creation, confident Gessner gave him everything he needs. As he threads through Old Town alleys toward his flat, he thinks less about what he did to Gessner than about a woman he regards as his charge, insisting he is her anonymous protector and that powerful forces will soon surface to protect the project’s secrecy.

The Ether returns as he nears home, and he again uses the metal wand to hold it at bay, promising himself that release is coming soon.

In London near dawn, an American named Mr. Finch paces his office, increasingly alarmed that he cannot reach Gessner. Knowing she attended Katherine Solomon’s lecture and then sent Finch an alarming message about Solomon’s forthcoming book, Finch fears something in Prague has gone dangerously wrong.