The Assassin's Guild returns to Krondor, seemingly killing without pattern or purpose. Squire James and newly commissioned Lieutenant William conDoin are plummeted into a dark world of Murder and politics as war threatens to engulf the Kingdom, for among those murdered is a noble from a neighbouring state.

Time is short and the city is gripped in terror as the two young men race to find the man responsible for this act of war, a mysterious figure known as the Crawler.