Our story begins in complete darkness with a death and a vanishing. A man mysteriously drowns in the River Seine and two children enter a dingy sideshow but never come out. In the shadowed world of the Obscura, everything that was once light is now dark and nothing is as it seems. The Gaslampers enforce brutal laws and terrorise the city with their wolves. The Calibrators attempt to resist the evil while they await the return of their hero, the Aigle. And the children desperately search for a way home. But Phillipe and Angelique didn't arrive here by accident. The Maire of the Obscura sought them out for a dark purpose. With no way of getting out, the only man who may be able to save them is their father. A simple man whose quiet, gentle ways could not possibly triumph in this dark, violent world. The boy, the girl and the wooden box is the first book in the Obscura trilogy.