Coralie lives with her father, Professor Sardie, in the museum of the title. The museum is little more than a Coney Island freak show in which web fingered Coralie is exhibited as a mermaid. Coralie's life centers around the museum and the few places she is allowed to go with the family housekeeper. She is essentially held prisoner by her father. Her life begins to change with the entrance of Ezekial/Eddie Cohen, a photographer whose life has been changed by witnessing the Triangle Shirtwaist fire who is searching for a girl missing from that factory before the tragedy occurred. Both Coralie and Eddie are transformed by the events of their lives and the discovery of the evils perpetrated by the Professor, and those responsible for the Triangle tragedy, the rampant corruption of New York in 1911, as well as the magic of the Dreamland amusement park on Coney Island. This story is engaging and richly detailed. Even the descriptions of the horrible parts of the story are well done. It is gritty and awful and beautiful.
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