It seems there's only one thing more terrifying than anything you could dream up -- the world you actually live in. Nick is a teenager who hasn't seen much of that world while growing up, but he's in for a shock when he leaves home. He has no money, nowhere to go -- and nowhere to return to after falling out with his mother's boyfriend. Now he must discover the freedom, but also the terror, of being on his own.
He meets a group of street performers -- human statues, who stand still for hours on end, in blustery cold and driving rain, to eke out a living. But that's not the only reason that the "Stone Saints" stand outside an old church building pretending to be statues; or that the "Tin Man" gets dressed in his fake armor for the tourists; or that Swan, whom Nick falls for, poses as a graceful clockwork ballerina. They're all praying they'll get noticed -- by the "Watchers."
All this talk about Watchers seems too crazy to believe, but there doesn't seem to be any other way for a young runaway to survive the streets. It's every man for himself and so Nick finds himself a character -- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart -- and a public spot, and stands still. He discovers how arduous this is, how the muscles beg for movement, how the mind screams for stimulation; and when a passerby puts a coin into the collection box at his feet, Nick starts to play jerkily on his white plastic recorder. Someone watches him from the crowd -- the shadowy Antonin. He makes Nick and Swan an offer that the others would die for.