Having finished reading this book last night, I have written myself a quick summary in an effort to keep track of characters and events. It is by no means exhaustive, but: spoilers ahead.
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The world has been broken into pieces, such that instead of one planet, there are 21 arks (and many more pieces smaller than the arks).
Ophelia (age 21? I think it was 21 since she had turned down marrying a couple distant cousins) has lived on the ark of Anima her whole life. As an Animist, she has the ability to ‘read’ objects – physically touching an item reveals to her the life of previous owners. She is also able to travel through mirrors, assuming they are large enough for her to fit through; if they aren’t, she can at least use them for listening.
She wears a pair of gloves at all times so as to refrain from accidentally invading people’s privacy or from contaminating objects with her own history and emotions. Her skill is such that she runs a museum; her godfather is, I believe, a head archivist who can allow her to sneak down to the lower levels of the family archives, to read her ancestor’s journal and glean what can be gleaned from the family spirit’s (Artemis’s) book. This is because the Doyennes in charge of Anima have arranged her marriage to a man from another ark, Thorn of The Pole, and Ophelia wants to learn whatever she can about The Pole in preparation.
Thorn arrives on Anima, announcing that the original courtship period must be much curtailed so he can return home for work; Ophelia and her aunt/godmother ride an airship to his ark, where the rest of the engagement will be spent.
Thorn is Treasurer of The Pole, which apparently means that everyone hates him; this means that they will hate Ophelia by extension, so she must be kept hidden/secret as much as possible for her own safety. Ophelia learns in time that Thorn was born a bastard, such that his half-siblings hate him too. Thorn warns Ophelia to trust no one but his aunt, Berenilde, who raised him despite his birth.
Berenilde is pregnant (by the family spirit, Farouk?? gross), and elects to hide Ophelia by having her pose as a mute servant, disguised with a Mirage garment that changes her appearance completely. As “Mime,” Ophelia must wait on Berenilde at all hours, sleep in dingy servant quarters, figure out the ever-changing layout of the ark’s buildings, and give her first few sandglasses (gratuities/breaks) to Fox (Foster), a fellow servant who helps show her the ropes.
In the course of servitude, Ophelia learns that: whatever one member of the Web sees (eg, Archibald the ambassador and his sisters), they all see; the Dragons (Thorn’s half-siblings) are able to hurt/kill telepathically or something; the entire city is cloaked in glamours, hiding the bland or rundown reality beneath; Farouk, like Artemis, has a book he wants to understand better, and Berenilde is in a race (with Archibald? with someone) to translate or otherwise understand it; there is a child who can imprison people within their own minds or steal their memories; there was a clan called Nihilists who were able to undo the Mirage enchantments; the head engineer of the ark is made of stern stuff; there is no due process; etc., etc.
Thorn is quite taciturn and only gives Ophelia information slowly over time. He is protective of her (did he kill Gustave the butler in her defense? Probably), but when she eventually learns that the marriage ceremony will create an exchange of their respective powers (her reading, his memory/Dragon claws), she loses trust in him, supposing that he is only protecting her skills as a reader.
As the novel ends, the Dragons have all been killed during their annual hunt (aside from Thorn and Berenilde, who didn’t go); Ophelia is preparing to meet Farouk face-to-face; her family is preparing to travel to the ark to come see her, as she never received any of their letters and could not write back; and she’s still recovering from a broken rib.
Egotist's Club 