In the second chapter of "His Dark Materials" trilogy, Will is twelve years old and he's just killed a man.

Now he's on his own, on the run, determined to discover the truth about his father's disappearance.

Then Will steps through a window in the air into another world, and finds himself a companion - a strange, savage little girl called Lyra. Like Will, she has a mission which she intends to carry out at all costs.

But the world of Cittagazze is a strange and unsettling place. Deadly soul-eating spectres stalk its streets, while high above, the wingbeats of distant angels sound against the sky. And in the mysterious Torre Degli Angeli lurks Cittagazze's most important secret- an object which people from many worlds would kill to possess...