Silk, prized for its lightness, luminosity, and beauty is also one of the strongest biological materials ever known. Now, they are now also beginning to offer a desperately needed, sustainable alternative to the plastics choking our planet. This is a cultural and biological history from the origins and ancient routes of silk to the biologists who learned the secrets of silk-producing animals, manipulating the habitats and physiologies of moths, spiders and molluscs. Because there is more than one silk, there is more than one story of silk. More than one road, more than one people who discovered it, and wove its threads. It is rich in the passionate connections made by women and men of science to the diversity of the animal world. It is an intoxicating mix of biography, intellectual history and science writing that brings to life the human obsession with silk.