The horrific sufferings of the mind-reading monster Hercules Barefoot : his wonderful love and his terrible hatred

On a stormy night in 1813, a doctor is called to the aid of two prostitutes in childbirth. As he tells the story of Hercules' bizarre and colourful life, which leads him from the bordello of his birth to a travelling freak show and then a Jesuit monastery and an asylum, Vallgren paints a magical picture of nineteenth-century Europe.