It’s a big Spiral Arm, and the scarred man, Donavan buigh, has gone missing init, upsetting the harper Mearana’s plans for a reconciliation between herparents. Bridget ban, a Hound of the League, is unconvinced that reconciliationis either possible or desirable; but nonetheless has dispatched agents toinvestigate the disappearance. After all, Donovan had once done the favor forher (in Up Jim River).There is a struggle in the Lion’s Mouth, the bureau that oversees the Shadows—aclandestine civil war of sabotage and assassination between those who wouldoverthrow Those of Name and the loyalists who support them. And Donovan, onetime Confederal agent, has been recalled to take a key part, willingly or no.