The return from the Crimson Guard could not attended at a worse time for an empire exhausted by warfare and weakened by betrayals and rivalries.

Into the seething cauldron of Quon Tali – the Malazan Empire’s heartland – they march, and with their come back comes the memory of their vow: undying opposition to the Empire. But components inside the Guard’s élite, the Avowed, possess set their places on much larger power, while various other, more historic entities are rising up, objective on furthering their personal arcane ends. And what of the swordsman known as Traveller who, with his partner Ereko, looks for a confrontation from which none have ever returned?

As the Guard prepare to wage war, the Empress Laseen’s generals and mages grow impatient at what they perceive as her mismanagement from the Empire. Is certainly she dropping her grip on power or provides she outwitted all of them? Could she become using the uprisings to acquire and finally eliminate the last irksome survivors from the days of Kellanved, her illustrious forerunner?