How many crows make a murder? When might you see a plunging of gannets? Why should you fear a charm of goldfinches? In Paris in the 1980s, a young man is lured by an unexpected predator into a perilous game. As a writer working on a locked-room mystery starts to go blind, his vision becomes populated by birds. Two sisters perform an act of revenge that leads to a deadly transformation. In his new collection of disquieting, surreal short stories, Nicholas Royle examines the haunting beauty and many uncanny qualities of birds, and explores – amid moments of black comedy – the dark mystery of human desire.