Captivated by the marketplace magicians, a boy is hungry to learn magic. Determined, the boy looks to the guidance of Great Gretta, from whom he learns that the illusion of the act, and not the act itself, is what matters most.

One day, after spying the boy’s talent, a palace guard approaches him. The guard lures the boy with the prospect of learning real magic. After glimpsing a trick he has never seen before, the boy decides to follow the guard to the palace.

Once at the palace, the boy’s abilities do not diminish. He exceeds his tutors’ expectations, building not only a gilded hand, but an entire gilded man. However, the boy still yearns for the ability to perform real magic. He is no longer content with merely possessing the knowledge of how a trick works.  But the boy soon learns that some wishes should not be granted. Appointed as court magician, the boy is tasked with making the regent’s problems disappear. In return, he is given a lifestyle of luxury. However, as with the performance of all real magic, the boy must pay a cost.

When the boy completes his first disappearing assignment, he loses his pinkie finger. The cost of performing real magic only accumulates. After ten years, the boy becomes a man. During this time at the palace, he loses a variety of things he values—appendages, items, memories, and even people, whom he loves dearly.

Desperate, the man attempts to manipulate the rules of real magic, but fails. He yearns for the opposite of what he once wished for. Instead of real magic, the man wants access to the illusion of the trick.

Unable to practice card tricks due to the loss of his fingers, the man decides to leave the palace behind to look for the things he lost. Even defeated, the man is convinced there is a trick behind the illusion of real magic that he could not see.