What does joy taste like? What color is R? Riley Sparx knows the answers to these questions and many more. He's locked away in a loony bin, but he's not crazy. He's just a synesthetic former professional surfer who fell in with an art cult and the wrong professor. Riley tells a tragic tale of how his choices intersected with fate, culminating at the ultimate sense-bending art festival and rave Solstice Lunarie. Despite his confinement, Riley holds out hope. It's because he's waiting to see the jewel. The gnomes showed it to him and they'll show it to him again, he thinks.