The children who attend Wybrany College are either wealthy, or somehow special. The cloistered school appears to be a safe haven from the chaos which overwhelms the city outside - but the college has its own agenda, and something wicked lurks just beneath the surface. A majestic piece of Gothic literature, Four by Four is a novel in two parts: the first, a portrait of an eerie, ill-omened institution, with a cryptic set of power structures; in the second, a substitute teacher keeps a diary, unearthing the school's mysteries even as he tries to hide his own secrets.