After seeing a performance by Marten the Magnificent, Franklin decides that he wants to be a magician, too, and charges his friends to see a show in which he promises to become invisible--even though that is a trick he does not know.
Traces the story of dancer-turned-magician's assistant Adelaide Herrmann, placing her achievements against a backdrop of period conventions about women in the arts and her determination to continue her work after the death of her husband.