New Adathen lies besieged. The Lord Protector is far away; Lady Tethys must command the fortress of the Women's Regiment. None but a Daishenic Knight might escape the siege alive and have the courage to return; Lady Tethys has only one such paladin. But the mystic laws of knighthood are clear: one may stand alone against all comers, and three may begin a sacred quest only that seven should complete it. Luned Adathen and Ailen Utryce take the quest, to ride with Sir Armitage in search of three noble barons to break the siege. The last of these three, they know, must be the cursed Baron Moruna.

When 19 year old Charlotte Howard doesn't return from a party, only the people who know her best are appropriately terrified. It's not like Charlie to stay out without calling. As the hours turn to days, older sister Olivia tries to put the pieces together. She finds a lost cell phone, an abandoned car and an untrustworthy boyfriend she'd never met before who was the last person to see her sister alive. And he's not the only secret Charlie's been keeping.