Fr Gideon Necrotode undergoes a psychological and spiritual crisis after experiencing a mysterious vision. He find himself confined in a clinical facility that blends medical bureaucracy with metaphysical phenomena. After witnessing a suspected apparition of the Holy Virgin, Fr Necrotode navigates a landscape of humming chairs, shifting mirrors, and institutional forms that attempt to categorise the divine as "sacred symptoms". The text explores how religious experience is processed through administrative language, eventually suggesting that nonsense and repetition serve as vital rhythms for enduring the unknown. Ultimately, the story posits that salvation is found not in certain truth, but in the "hollowing" of the self and the acceptance of a world that refuses to be explained. Through his journey, Fr Necrotode moves from a state of acute existential fear to a quiet, rhythmic existence where the boundary between holiness and pathology remains permanently blurred.

Otto Handley was born in Spitzbergen in 1979 and later studied sociology at the University of Manchester, where his fascination with the hidden structures of everyday life first took root. Now living in Basingstoke with his wife, Amalietta, and their six children, Handley divides his time between writing, exploring caves, tending to an unruly collection of orchids, and coaxing baroque melodies from his lute. His work blends domestic observation with philosophical curiosity, reflecting a life shaped equally by the depths of speleology and the delicate discipline of horticulture.