It's an ordinary, boring day, except that Reyn thinks he just witnessed a murder. Now he is sure the guard that killed another student is out to silence him and so Reyn flees from the blandness of his life in the Upper city to the dubious safetey of Scumtown. Within hours he has been mugged and left for dead. Across town, above the dross of commoners, Charles Greenworth tries to amuse himself. Terrorising his minions and desperately hoping to remove his despised wife, Greenworth's narcissism paves the way for the devastation of the city and the release of entities far beyond his understanding. Reyn's escape from a murderer sees him drawn into an escalating conflict which he has no understanding of, but he will fight to protect his new friends, to save his own skin and perhaps to find the emancipation from slavery he dreams of.