Cade Elegy's mind is tearing itself apart, crowded with the phantoms of the dead, and he must carry the burdens they could not. This bond lends him their experience and allows him to bend the laws of the physical world -- a power he desperately needs if he is to discover the truth of what happened to his missing family. The trail has gone cold, but he is given one last chance when he is recruited by a princess to solve a murder. They soon uncover proof that their war with the Wraiths, a hostile alien race dominating their planet, never really ended. Together with the princess, an overzealous archaeologist, and an ancient computer intelligence, Cade must stop the Wraiths before they annihilate the last remaining cities of Chalice and before the phantoms he bears destroy what's left of his mind.