Wiola lives in a close-knit agricultural community. Wiola has a black cat called Blackie. Wiola`s father was a deserter but now he is a taxidermist. Wiola`s mother tells her that killing spiders brings on storms. Wiola must never enter the seamstress`s `secret` room. Wiola collects matchbox labels. Wiola is a good Catholic girl brought up with fables & nurtured on superstition. Wiola lives in a Poland that is both very recent & lost in time. Swallowing Mercury is about the ordinary passing of years filled with extraordinary days. In vivid prose filled with texture, colour & sound, it describes the adult world encroaching on the child`s. From childhood to adolescence, Wiola dances to the strange music of her own imagination.