Discovering that large sums of money have been diverted from her father's treasury, the eldest daughter of Lanachrona's overseer is directed to discover her Talent in order to save her world, a mission that is complicated by an attempt to marry her off to a lord in a neighboring land. Set in Tempre, the capital city of Lanachrona on Corus, the world of Modesitt's Corean Chronicles.

Millennia ago, a magical disaster caused the fall of a great worldwide civilization, the end of a golden age. New civilizations have fought their way up from the ancient destruction and chaos, knowing little of the lost world that preceded them or the details of its fall. Corus today is a world of contending countries, of humans, but also of strange animals and supernatural creatures. It is a place of magical powers and of a few people who are talented...

The world Corus has been redesigned to become the new home of a superior race from a distant world whose very life depends on drawing sustenance from the biological life force of a planet. Meanwhile, their plans are supervised by a staff of Alectors, who in effect rule the world. The Alectors alone have access to the huge flying Pteridons they have bred, and the superior weapons that underpin their psychic talents. The time is now fast approaching...

Mykella, the eldest daughter of the Lord-Protector of Lanachrona, discovers that someone is diverting significant sums of money from her father's treasury. Soon, a series of fatal and near fatal accidents occur with members of her family and trusted retainers. Then there are attempts to remove Mykella and her sisters from the capital by marrying them off. While Mykella develops a solid idea of who stands behind it all, each of her attempts at a solution...

The civilization of the Alectors, which has farmed and developed all life on Corus to produce sustaining life force for their vampiric civilization, must move wholesale from one planet to another every few thousand years as it exhausts the life force of another world. This time, two worlds have been prepared, and the time is at hand for the great move. And Corus is the loser, to be abandoned by the civilizing forces of the government of Alectors but...