After her father's murder, eighteen-year-old Aihui Ying travels to the capital, where she discusses herself as her brother and infiltrates the Engineers Guild as she tries to solve her father's murder with help from a prince with plans of his own.
An attack by the mysterious pirate fleet, Blood Phoenix, forces Ying and her allies back into the political turmoil of the Nine Isles, while her sister Nian uncovers a dark conspiracy in the capital, as the Isles teeter on the brink of destruction.
