Michael Ashe, a young antiquarian bookseller in Los Angeles, must confront the fact that his once-thriving business is collapsing. Even librarians have turned their backs on books, while pouring money into electronic data. But Ashe refuses to admit defeat. He continues to hunt for rare tomes in Mexico City and Paris, while struggling with his loneliness and searching for a woman to love. Along the way he learns the startling story of the best-read man in France. A man who founded a great library to preserve knowledge against the ravishes of time. This revelation leads Ashe from mere attempts to save his own livelihood into a public battle to save the life of books themselves. A tale about the exotic and romantic world of international rare bookselling, and a cry of alarm about the demise of the printed book, the decline of reading, and the conflict between print and digital culture.