On opening night in London, October 1886, Le Cirque des Rves opens to a massive crowd. Every element is meticulously coordinated, with acts from across the world performing in adjacent tents, and the patrons moving through an immersive, seamless whole of costumes, signage, scents, and sound.

At midnight, a bonfire in the courtyard is lit as a choreographed spectacle. Twelve fire performers ring the space like a clock, firing flaming arrows into a twisted-iron structure with each chime; the flames shift color step by step from yellow to blue, pink, orange, reds, violet, indigo, midnight blue, black, and finally a blinding white with sparks and smoke. The crowd reacts rapturously, and many patrons stay longer because of the display.

As the night continues, visitors wander looping paths and drift from tent to tent, trading recommendations and sometimes lingering in a single attraction for hours. By dawn, staff struggle to usher people out, soothing them with the promise that the circus will open again at sunset. Overall, opening night is an undeniable success.

The only unnoticed complication happens just before sunset: the wife of the wild-cat tamer goes into early labor with twins. A doctor is brought backstage, and the births bracket midnight: Winston Aidan Murray is born six minutes before, and Penelope Aislin Murray seven minutes after.

Chandresh Christophe Lef8vre is mildly disappointed the twins are not identical, though he has Marco send extravagant red roses. The bright red-haired babies are passed around by performers between acts; Tsukiko calls the hair an auspicious color, kisses their foreheads, and later hangs folded paper cranes over their cradle. Near dawn the twins are walked through the emptying circus, remaining strangely alert until sunrise, when they finally sleep in a black wrought-iron cradle that had arrived earlier as an anonymous gift. Sometime afterward, their nicknames Poppet and Widget become fixed, though no one remembers who coined them.