Imagine you could hide a secret. Forever. Emmett Farmer is a binder's apprentice.

His job is to hand-craft beautiful books and, within each, to capture something unique and extraordinary: a memory. If you have something you want to forget, or a secret to hide, he can bind it – and you will never have to remember the pain it caused. In a vault under his mentor's workshop, row upon row of books – and secrets – are meticulously stored and recorded.

Then one day Emmett makes an astonishing discovery: one of the volumes has his name on it.