Cathy continues to be forced into an arranged marriage with William Iris – a situation that comes with far more strings than even she could have anticipated, especially when she learns of his family’s motives to them both. Meanwhile, Max and the gargoyle investigate the Company – a mystical organization that appears to play by its twisted rules, non-e of these favourable to Culture. And in Mundanus, Sam offers discovered something extremely peculiar about his wife’s company – a thing that could herald catastrophe for everybody on both edges of the Break up Worlds.