Eaza Fishman is a rising star within the Guard, the military branch of the Great Lake Alliance. But his renown can't protect his little sister Lydia from being arrested by the authorities when she breaks anti-prophesy laws, telling everyone about the "ghost" that has announced the arrival of a new messiah. His family now disgraced, Eaza is suspended from service and finds himself a pariah. He seeks the truth behind what haunts his sister and visits the forbidden Talis Dunes, where others claim to have seen the ghosts. There, a radiant being appears, telling him to rescue his sister and flee into the southern desert. His faith renewed, Eaza's task is daunting, fight the Guard's elite forces that now hold his sister and find a way to escape across the lakes into the drought-riven wastes. Meanwhile, just as Eaza's quest begins, a lone intelligence officer within the Guard uncovers a foreign plot involving holographic images, designed to reawaken religious fervor and create chaos throughout the strictly secular alliance. Are the ghosts real, or an illusion?