From the back cover
Atrus is a rich, powerful and cantankerous wizard. A prideful misanthropist, he despises people he considers less intelligent than him, that is to say, everyone.
In his manor, he has created a wooden chest, at the bottom of which he opened a portal to a pocket dimension of his making. He uses this miniworld, token of his might and nigh-infinite power, to discard his garbage, where it won’t pollute or bother anyone. And for this, among other things, Atrus considers himself a good person.
A few days ago, his cleaning lady mistakenly threw away an important artifact, a stone statuette of unfathomable power and value. Atrus is ready to pay a substantial sum to whoever would dive into the portal and retrieve it. An easy task,
seemingly.
However, what neither the wizard or the people who answered his ad could predict is that a budding civilisation is developping inside the pocket dimension, and that their growth is severely stunted by the waste of the very wizard responsible for their existence.