She's the oldest person in the Dragaeran Empire, a military genius and master of sorcery whose own story stretches back to before the dawn of history. She's Sethra Lavode, the undead Enchantress of Dzur Mountain. Now, after a long absence, she's returned to take an active role in the Empire's affairs-and the affairs of her friends Khaavren, Pel, Tazendra, Aerich, and all their friends and relations.

Two hundred years after Adron’s Disaster, in which Dragaera City was accidentally reduced to an ocean of chaos by an experiment in wizardry gone wrong, the Empire isn’t what it used to be. Deprived at a single blow of their Emperor, of the Orb that is the focus of the Empire’s power, of their capital city with its Impe-rial bureaucracy, and of a great many of their late fellow citizens, the surviving Dragaerans have been limping through a long Interregnum, bereft even of the simple magic and sorcery they were accustomed to use in everyday life.

This is the story of the conspiracy against the Empire that begins in the mean streets of the Underside and flourishes in the courtly politics of the Palace where Khaavren has loyally served in the Guards this past half-millenium.It is the tale of the Dragonlord Adron’s overweening schemes, of his brilliant daughter Aliera, and of the eldritch Sethra Lavode.

Khaavren of the House of Tiassa is a son of landless nobility, possessor of a good sword and “tolerably well-acquainted with its use.” Along with three loyal friends, he enthusiastically seeks out danger and excitement. But in a realm renowned for repartee and betrayals, where power is as mutable as magic, a young man like Khaavren, newly come from the countryside, had best be wary. His life depends on it. And so does the future of Draegara.

Fresh from the collapse of his marriage, and with the criminal Jhereg organization out to eliminate him, Vlad decides to hide out among his relatives in faraway Fenario. All he knows about them is that their family name is Merss and that they live in a papermaking industrial town called Burz. At first Burz isn’t such a bad place, though the paper mill reeks to high heaven. But the longer he stays there, the stranger it becomes. No one will tell him where to find his relatives.