On a lawless science-fiction world caught in a struggle between a domineering Admiralty, powerful guilds, religious cults, and criminal syndicates, three very different mercenaries chase fame, fortune, and the settling of scores. Sal, a former indentured servant, arrives in the coastal city of Murder Bay hunting the criminal who once sold her into slavery. The secretive spy Rook slips into a remote, contested bog on a mission to seize a mysterious device buried beneath it. The disowned vagrant Smith returns to his ancestral home after his parents' death, drawn into a clandestine plot surrounding a colossal creature and the cult that reveres it. Each protagonist must talk, bargain, and fight their way through a web of shifting alliances where every deal carries a price.