I think this book starts quite fantastically: Maria is in an asylum, but you don't quite know why. It seems as though she's being watched, observed by some malignant force she can't quite see. She falls into a routine there because she has to; there is no alternative. It soon settles down, however, and loses that unknown quantity; eventually, you learn exactly how Maria ended up where she was, which is less enigmatic but just as chilling in its own way. The book is unfinished, but in some ways it is a catalog of all the terrible things that can happen to a woman in the late 18th century. It generally runs a pretty even keel, and I found the way that other stories were woven into Maria's in a number of different fashions fascinating; Maria seemingly had a project to acquire as many other women's stories as she can.