Former colonel, and now a crippled inquisitor, Glokta is sent to a city besieged by the Gurk army. He must at least for a time delay the fall of the enclave and find the traitor among the rulers of Dagoska.
A group of northerners led by Triduba joins the Union army in order to fight it against their common enemy—the Betod’s forces coming from the North. Fate brings them to West, who is sent to the штаб of a hopeless prince, Ladislaus.
Bayaz, the first of the current magicians, together with a motley group of his fellow travelers, makes his way toward the edge of the Circle of the World in search of the legendary powerful artifact.
And over everything hangs the danger of conquest by the dark prophet Khalyule with his terrible eaters.