Everyone knows the story of the Pied Piper, but there's more to the story:What happened to the rats?What happened to the children?When a spell goes awry in a rat-baiting competition, scrap discovers he's a little of both.In this whimsical coming of age tale, a running battle between Black's gang of pickpockets and Piper's summoned vermin spills out into the streets of Calximus City. Scrap and his companions must navigate the aristocracy and underworlds of rodent and human alike to solve the mystery of their roots. Along the way he'll make friends of rat and man; survive cats, goblins, ogres, and witches; and if he's smart enough, kind enough, and believes enough, Scrap just might save the kingdom ... and himself.