Having returned from the infernal Abyss only to find his whole world changed, young "sinner" Oz Vessalius embarks on an attempt at normalcy after being reunited with his best friend and valet, Gilbert, whom he had presumed dead. But during a trip into town with Gil and Alice, an unexpected encounter leads Oz down memory lane...For Oz, however, the path is one covered with the most menacing of thorns. And lying in wait to assail him there...The baleful eye of his father and the echoes of cursed words Oz would much rather forget...

The air of celebration surrounding fifteen-year-old Oz Vessalius's coming-of-age ceremony quickly turns to horror when he is condemned for a sin about which he knows nothing. He is thrown into an eternal, inescapable prison known as the Abyss from which there is no escape. There, he meets a young girl named Alice, who is not what she seems. Now that the relentless cogs of fate have begun to turn, do they lead only to crushing despair for Oz, or is there some shred of hope for him to grasp on to?

Guided by Jack Vessalius, the man from Alice's memories, Oz wanders back into the world of lost memories in search of Alice. There, he stumbles upon the devastating tragedy of Sablier, the century-old disaster which sent the old capital into the Abyss, an incident of which no one has any recollection...except Alice, who was there?! When Oz discovers the truth of the memories Alice so desperately wants to forget, the powers of the B-Rabbit will spiral out of control and threaten the lives of all who are trapped within the dreamlike dimension, including Alice herself...

"What those people are looking at...isn't me." Though Oz's sudden appearance in the midst of Pandora wreaks havoc, the initially chilly reception to the prison-breaker runs more than warm when Jack Vessalius, hero of the tragedy of Sablier and the man from Alice's memories, manifests in Oz's body. Sensing Oz's resultant inner turmoil, Uncle Oscar drags Oz and company on a "mission" to Lutwidge Academy, where Oz's little sister, Ada, is a student. But some carefree fun and a tearful reunion ten years in the making is not all for which Oz must prepare himself: crimson-cloaked foes are lying in wait to torture him for answers about the events of a hundred years ago...

"The answer you seek lies within them." Oz Vessalius may have survived his stint in the Abyss, but he is no closer to discovering the truth behind the "sin" for which he was condemned. On the advice of a mysterious man who appeared to him when Alice regained the first of her memories, Oz, along with Alice and Pandora's Raven, embarks on a mission to investigate the site of his disastrous coming-of-age ceremony in search of answers. However, what begins as a simple investigation becomes the revelation of a harsher reality, which comes swooping down on Oz as the hands of the clock continue ticking away mercilessly...

Caucus race. It may be an endless race, but the runners carry on for the "hope" that lies just ahead. If they do so, then surely...... The secrets housed by the four great dukedoms of PandoraHearts spill forth with abandon in the four Jun Mochizuki-illustrated fairy tales contained herein...

The snow-white maiden encountered once upon a time in the depths of the Abyss by the clown christened the Red-Eyed Specter...who was she really? As there are two sides to every story, could it be there are two sides to the existence known as Alice? Duke Barma may have provided a sordid outline, but Break colors the tale with vivid swathes of bloody crimson as he opens up about his past. Will these tragic truths long secreted away isolate Break further from his allies once he has revealed them?