In a time of dangerous unrest, Captain Pugh Avinguard has been delegated to protect Lord Joshua Calvinward, author of a controversial bill that makes him a target for political extremists. A train crash, a riot, and assassination in the High Forum all threaten to plunge the country of Timeholm into chaos. But Pugh's own past is about to crash into his present, with the reappearance of his beloved ex-wife, Claire. Robbed of identity and sanity by a mysterious religious order, The Inner Ring, Clare has been transformed into Oracle, a 'Glimpser', whose prophecies predict even more tumultuous events to come.