The theatre at St Hyginus, in an obscure corner of Venice, is about to reopen after 7 years of darkness. A young musician named Domenico has been employed to rehearse the company and direct the operas. In the eaves of the theatre Domenico and his lover Rodolfo discover an ageing, half-mad castrato called Angelo Colombani in a room filled with theatrical machinery. It was the failure of his cloud machinery, on a disastrous night seven years before, that led to the closure of the theatre. Admirably suited to the alchemical talents of Christopher Whyte, The Cloud Machinery reads like a tale by Hoffmann set to music by Mozart. Its brilliant and elegant surface cannot conceal disturbing pyschological undertones which make this a thoroughly contemporary novel.