When the rich but carefree Lysander Knox runs from his home and father, he angrily flees to the beautiful city of Venice. Before long, he is forced to find work to support himself, and find a job working in a strange little cafe, "Name of the Queen", run by an eccentric girl that everyone calls Time. When he accidentally stumbles across something he didn't believe existed, he is shoved into a world of grinning monsters, soulless humans, and people without shadows. But when everything he's came to love becomes endangered, Lysander is forced to take a stand against the creatures, and prevent the upcoming apocalypse.