In this new graphic novel, Sophie Goldstein takes the story of Black Narcissus and sets it in space, adding layers of the uncanny to the tale of simmering, forbidden desire in a foreign land. Instead of nuns, the women in this book are missionaries of the Empire, sent to planets to spread their form of reading, writing, and civilization to the native fauna. What they find on Mopu is a little darker than they had expected – their only human contact is a genetically modified man who might be a criminal and who definitely is too close for comfort to the indigenous females – but it doesn’t stop a rivalry from forming between two of the emissaries. And when one of the women’s young pupils begins a startling transformation into puberty, the restrained, elegant black and white panels explode into a phantasmagoria of art deco jungles, swamps, billowing sheets and creeping forms that echo the feverish nightmare the women are going through.