This book tells us about old documents. The documents were in a bottle and had been there for many, many years. The main character, Sian, translates these documents. They contain a mystery that slowly unfolds.
This is not the only book by Faber about old documents. “The fire gospel” is the other one.
Sian in the mean time meets a man and a dog. In the end she keeps the dog, but she and the man don’t become a couple.
The man is rather direct. He is critical about religion and life in monasteries. And Sian is an archeologist researching an old monasterie. It seems this is the reason that in the end they each go their own way.