Destiny can take many shapes. For Henry, a writer struggling to finish a book about the Holocaust, it arrives in the form of a puzzling envelope from a stranger. The envelope takes him into a taxidermist's workshop. Filled with lovingly preserved animals from all corners of the globe, this place is unlike anywhere he has ever been. Among the hundreds of stuffed animals are Beatrice and Virgil: a monkey and a donkey, they are also the characters in a play the taxidermist is writing. When the taxidermist asks Henry for help with the play, he is drawn in. But what is the play actually about? What have the animals suffered at the hands of the author? Who is he? And what does he really want from Henry?