This is the first of the Gormenghast trilogy and introduces the reader to Gormenghast Castle and its inhabitants. Lord Sepulchrave the Earl of Groan, his life an endless succession of meaningless rituals, Countess Gertrude, who spends her days secluded in her bedroom surrounded by cats and birds, her only source of pleasure. Their daughter Fuschia is there too, along with Sepulchrave’s eccentric twin sisters, Cora and Clarice and Mr. Flay, who leads Lord Sepulchrave through the interminable rituals of the castle. Into this world are thrust Titus, heir to the Earldom and Steerpike, a Machiavellian kitchen boy on the make.