"Alchemy", Webster says, "is a magical process of transmuting ordinary materials into something of true merit" (base metals into gold), and such is this story of a young, very intense woman who 'sculpts' by placing in some kind of order into cigar boxes, little things, usually broken, that she finds here and there. So exciting is her work that she is able to go to a month long retreat where she is only asked to "do what you do without interruption", but there are interruptions, and not only at this retreat, but in other parts of her life as she tries to amalgamate who she is from what she discovers about herself.