A locked workshop. A legendary clock stopped at 10:10. And a master who took his last breath in silence.

To the police, the death of Simon Vance is a tragic but clear-cut suicide. The door was bolted from the inside, a note was left behind, and the tea was laced with cyanide. Case closed.

But for Eleanor "Nell" Gray, an elite antique restorer who can read the history of a scratch on a brass dial, something is profoundly wrong. Simon didn't just leave a clock stopped ? he left a message.

Forced into an uneasy partnership with Inspector Ethan Walker ? the man who represents the very rules Nell loves to bend ? they must navigate a maze of high-society secrets and long-buried greed. Walker hunts for DNA and digital footprints; Nell hunts for the truth hidden in the patina of age.

As the clock ticks down, Nell realizes the killer isn't just protecting a fortune ? they are erasing the kind of truth that was never meant to be found. In a world where objects remember what people forget, can Nell find the missing gear before she becomes the next relic of the past?