Anglet Sutonga, a former Steeplejack, must pose as a foreign princess to catch the thief who stole the government's plans for a secret weapon. Yet Ang has other things on her mind as well. Refugees from the north are trickling into the city, but an ambitious politician is proposing extreme measures to get rid of them, and when Ang discovers that one theft could spark a conflagration of conspiracy that will threaten the most vulnerable of Bar-Selehm, she decides she is the only one who can stop it.