In New York in February 1873, the theater office for the magician known as Prospero the Enchanter receives an envelope that turns out to be a suicide note. It arrives pinned carefully to the coat of a five-year-old girl, delivered by a lawyer who refuses to explain and quickly abandons her at the theater.

The theater manager recognizes the child as meant for Prospero and brings her to his office, trying to comfort her with tea. The girl sits unnaturally still, silent and withdrawn, refusing to remove her coat while the sealed envelope hangs from her button.

When Prospero arrives, he realizes the “package” is his daughter, and reacts with blunt shock. He tears the envelope from her coat and reads it; the letter addresses him by his real name, Hector Bowen, and states the girl is his child, Celia.

Hector mocks the girl’s mother for not naming Celia “Miranda,” provoking Celia’s first visible response: the teacup on the desk trembles and shatters. Hector immediately counters with magic of his own, reversing the spill and re-forming the cup as steam rises again.

Seeing Celia’s power, Hector grips her face to study her and concludes she may be “interesting.” Over the following weeks he repeatedly tries to rename her, but Celia refuses to answer to anything but her own name. Several months later, once he decides she is ready, Hector writes a letter with no address that nonetheless reaches someone across the ocean.