Set in a small town in 1959 England, it is the story of a woman who decides, against polite but ruthless local opposition, to open a bookshop, a decision which becomes a political minefield.

Boston professor Johan Meyer, an eminent anthropologist is highly regarded for his translations of Egyptian tablets. Approached to evaluate an ancient text, his mysterious client requires urgency so Johan works around the clock. As the hours pass, strange occurrences take place as Johan's dreams become drenched in bizarre visions. It all seems a strange coincidence until the translation is almost at an end. It is only then that Johan realises the parchemtn contains a ritual that brings to life the Queen of the Underworld, thus awakening the dead and plunging the world into eternal darkness.

Jean-Baptiste Grenouille came into the world unwanted, expected to die, yet born with an unnerving sense of smell that created alienation as well as talent. Of all the smells around him, Grenouille is beckoned to the scent of a woman's soul, and spends the rest of his life attempting to smell her essence again by becoming a perfumer, and creating the essence of an innocence lost.