"Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn, and cauldron bubble." - William Shakespeare

Trouble arrives for the Assassin Without a Name when he is waylaid by a woman with strange powers and a stranger disposition. Claiming she is not a witch, but "something worse," she tells him her name is Mathilda and that she wishes to hire him. The mark? None other than the supreme leader of the Warders, an organization Mathilda believes will bring death and destruction to Alchester unless they are stopped.

But the Warders aren't the only ones with such grand, dire designs. The Progressive Society, led by Gwendolyn Goddard, sets in motion an ambitious plan that will put Mathilda and the Assassin Without a Name's fortitude to the test, for they'll have to fight more than just the living if they hope to survive.