Ehtlentin is like many cities in the Whole Realm: rotten. Every day, thousands of Uncut orphans die to a disease called the first rot, while hundreds of Once-Cut citizens succumb to the second rot. Only the Twice-Cuts, citizens who can afford the two surgeries necessary to remove the deadly teslac organ from their bodies, survive. Their longevity perpetuates their power, but even they cannot stop the arrival of the Psyperials, inhabitants of the Cracked Realm, who claim the city as they escape their own dying planet. Amongst the chaos, Glade Jadamara, Once-Cut and Captain of the Spear Throw, finds her ship stolen on the eve of the Psyperial invasion. Together, she and the unusual Uncut thief named Sincret decipher the mysteries behind the Psyperial Empire, the rot, and their shared past. The revelations they unravel have universe spanning consequences.