Dingus Xavier has been a Knight-Junior for all of ten minutes when his Master drops him off in the tree city of Windish to fend for himself. When Dingus strikes up a friendship with the tiny pickpocket Tai, he gets in over his head with a vicious criminal organization he never knew existed. When Dingus needs his Master most, though, Vandis is halfway around the world trying to budge immovable principalities into taking action against the slaughter of hundreds of Knights in neighboring Muscoda—and trying to survive to return to Windish. Dingus promised to keep his nose clean, but he takes his oath to help the weak and the poor in deadly earnest, and his actions will shake a city to its foundations.