The Society of Unknowable Objects

In 2015, Imelda Sparks, a sixty-year-old British artist and member of a secret society, hikes alone in the Nevada wilderness, guided by The Atlas of Lost Things, a magical map that leads its holder to lost magical artifacts. Near sunset she spots a strange man on a hillside; looking at him produces inexplicable nausea. Panic overtakes her and she stumbles off the trail's edge. The man lunges to catch her but only snags the chain of a crucifix around her neck. The chain snaps and Imelda falls to her death.

A decade later, Imelda's daughter Magda Sparks is a London-based thriller novelist writing under the pseudonym Miranda Hepworth. Her favorite place is 114 Bell Street in Marylebone, home to a secondhand bookshop run by Frank Simpson, an elderly man who has been like a father to her. Hidden beneath the shop is the meeting place of the Society of Unknowable Objects, a secret group that collects and protects magical artifacts: ordinary items with extraordinary powers.

Frank calls an emergency meeting. He tells Magda and Will Pinn, a reclusive watchmaker who inherited his seat from his late father, Dr. Ellery Pinn, that a young man named James Wei has found a magical ivory chess piece in Hong Kong. James, the son of a close friend of Will's late father, knows about the Society because Dr. Pinn once broke the rules of secrecy. The fourth member, Henrietta Wiseman, has been absent for three years. Magda volunteers to retrieve the chess piece. Privately, Will knows Frank's stories about the Society's origins are lies but keeps silent.

In Hong Kong, Magda meets James and confirms the chess piece is genuine at his skyscraper office. A pale, gaunt-faced man enters with a silenced handgun and shoots James in the head. Magda clutches the chess piece and leaps from the balcony. She has a secret of her own: a jade pendant inherited from her mother that manipulates gravity. She catches it mid-fall, soars across Victoria Harbour, and escapes to London, leaving her phone behind. The gunman, Owen Maddox, is a Welsh-born former military sniper turned contract killer who possesses his own magical map. From the office visitor book he learns Magda's name, and from her phone's lock screen he discovers she is based in London.

An interlude set in 2017 reveals that the man from Nevada, who introduced himself as Lukas, resurrected Imelda at a remote lakeside using the crucifix he took when she fell. He demanded friendship; when Imelda refused, he abandoned her, and she died again from exposure.

Back in London, Henrietta appears inside Magda's locked house, having passed through the door with a magical ring that grants intangibility. Henry reveals two truths Frank has concealed: The Society's founders were not noble protectors but thieves who enriched themselves through magic, and the Clockwork Cabinet, the ornate case supposedly housing the artifact collection, is empty. Magda confronts Frank in Regent's Park, where he demonstrates the chess piece's power by freezing and puppeting strangers, but refuses further explanation.

At the next meeting, Frank reveals the Impossible Box, a small wooden box that can hold anything of any size; one must never look directly inside it. The entire collection is stored within. Owen then bursts in and demands everything at gunpoint. He seizes the chess piece and the box. Magda fights him with the pendant but is overpowered. James Wei, alive and arrived from Hong Kong, strikes Owen and drives him off. James survived because of magical pills given to him as a child by Will's father; the pills grant perfect health and invulnerability. Henrietta, who ghosted Frank through the wall to safety, also appears. Owen escapes with the stolen artifacts.

From his hospital bed, Frank directs Magda to a hidden notebook in his apartment. An enclosed letter reveals Frank created the Society himself; the original founders were criminals who misused magic. The notebook is The Book of Wonders, a magical book that creates new artifacts: The holder describes what they want, and the item manifests within days. All Society artifacts originate from this book. Imelda used it to create the Atlas before her fatal quest. James suggests creating a new map to find the stolen box, and the book responds to Magda's wish with golden light.

A 2020 interlude reveals that Lukas once visited Owen's remote cabin, shrugged off gunfire, and stole his silver flask, a magical artifact that lets its user see souls. Owen kept the Atlas, which Lukas dropped, and spent years tracking the flask.

The group entrusts the book to Will and flies to Alabama, where the map shows the Impossible Box near a town called Masters. They encounter Lukas, who has defeated Owen and taken everything. Lukas reveals he resurrected Imelda repeatedly, each time further destroying her mind until she became feral. Owen drives into the group, but Lukas splits the road with the gold coin, burying James, Henry, and Owen underground. With Magda frozen by the chess piece, Lukas resurrects Imelda one final time; the creature that emerges is mindless, with no recognition of Magda. Magda discovers she can use the pendant through thought alone, lifts Lukas off the ground, and flies across the Atlantic.

Henry ghosts underground, finds James alive, and recovers the Impossible Box; Owen has suffocated. She and James fly to London. Meanwhile, Will discovers two pages cut from the book and recreates them: One shows a sketch of a baby alongside the wish for a child that will live. Frank confirms that Magda's grandfather used the book in 1975 to create a living child, an artifact in human form. When Magda returns, Will shares this discovery, and the group concludes Lukas is that child, explaining why he cannot die and why looking at him causes nausea.

Lukas follows the magical signatures to London using a switchblade knife that controls the wind. Monstrous rosebushes and storms consume the city. Henry ghosts Magda through a wall of thorns into Bell Street, where Lukas has captured the others. He demands someone create another being like him using the book, which does not respond to Lukas because he is not human. He describes his lifelong loneliness: abandoned as a child, despised by everyone who senses his wrongness. Magda offers to create a companion if he surrenders all items. They shake hands, and Magda shoves his hand into the Impossible Box. Will and Henry help force Lukas inside. Magda lifts him with the pendant, and the box seals him within.

Frank's weakened heart gives out during the ordeal. Magda refuses to use the crucifix to bring him back, knowing he would never forgive her. The arbor collapses without Lukas's magic, revealing the rainy London night.

Ten days later, after Frank's funeral, Magda announces the Society will continue under her leadership, with transparency replacing secrecy. James joins and plans to move to London, Henry agrees on her own terms, and Will asks for time to decide. Several months later, Magda has renamed the shop "Frank's Books" and runs it with James. An American woman named Cassie visits, asks about special notebooks, and leaves a card for "The Fox Library." When Cassie exits, Magda glimpses sunshine and green hills instead of wintry London before the door closes. Magda recognizes that the world of magic extends far beyond anything the Society has discovered.