The story commences amid a swirling tornado of confusion. To begin with, there is a Prologue before the official beginning of the story. What occurs in this prefatory section is not quite clear as it is taking place and may still not be crystal clear for some readers even by the end. Emil Retvenko is a Grisha who is abducted by a mysterious Shu man. The author chooses to let the reader munch on that information for a while as the narrative really kicks into high gear in a small-time casino of sorts with the enigmatic name of Club Cumulus.
What follows is only slightly less confusing than the plot of Ocean’s Thirteen as a bunch of characters that will utterly bewilder anyone not already familiar with the series descends upon the plot in full force. Club Cumulus is more than a place to gamble for money, it is a place to gamble with lives and destinies. Jesper Fahey and Nina Zenik take the high road of distracting Cornelis Smeet. Meanwhile, Kaz Brekker and Wylan Van Eck are taking the more dangerous road of rifling through Jan Van Eck’s office. The caper takes on an added dimension when Kaz concludes that it would be worthwhile to abduct Van Eck’s wife as a bargaining chip to negotiate the release of the equally abducted Inej Ghafa. Into this thicket of intrigue arrives Colm Fahey, Jesper’s dad, with the intent of paying off debts owned by his son. It is while Jesper and Wylan are on their way to meet up with Jesper’s father that they are the victims of a surprise ambush. While they manage to get away relatively unscathed, Kaz meets with Colm to request a three-day extension to round up the money he needs to pay off his son’s debts.
Having successfully pulled off the kidnapping of Van Eck’s wife, things continue going their way when the trade for Inej seems to be going smoothly as well. However, some super-powerful Shu warriors suddenly descend to attack Jesper and Nina who manage to get away with a talent for arson and some crackerjack shooting themselves. As if the caper at the casino and the kidnapping of Alys weren’t enough to keep him busy, Kaz reveals that his plans to sabotage Van Eck’s sugar silos by making an investment in them only to unleash a chemical weevil in them to artificially sweeten the selling price.
The attempt to actually pull off this act of sabotage is interrupted by a surprise attack and the revelation that a mole is in the machine. Kaelish warlord Pekka Rollins turns out to be as untrustworthy as one might well have suspected by being in league with Van Eck. And as if that snitching on the sabotage plans weren’t enough, he then launches an assault upon the secret hideaway Kaz has been using to safeguard Kuwei under the protective guard of Jesper and Matthias Helvar. Once again, however, fortune favors the protagonists as, yet again, the good guys manage to escape without losing too much in the bargain.
From there, it is back to the city and the hotel where Colm has been waiting for the money to pay off the debts. This becomes the stage for a little bit of the old good news/bad news. The good news: Nina has suddenly developed an ability to manipulate the dead. The bad news: Van Eck has gained authority over pretty much everybody left who might present themselves as something less than dependable allies. Faced with little in the way of possibilities out of their dire situation, Kaz comes up with a plan so crazy it just might work: a slave auction for the services of Kuwei.
But wait, there’s more. Kaz’s plan also involves faking some embassy Grisha as the powerful Council of Tides so that they can stake the claim that the auction is not proper since Van Eck has been fueling the economic standing of the Shu representatives. Things could not turn out much better as this results in Van Eck’s arrest while their secret plan to fake the death of Kuwei and smuggle him out of the city is pulled off without a hitch. Well, not completely without a hitch: Matthias gets killed.
This leaves the gang with just one major problem left to deal with: the mole. Kaz also takes care of the problematic Pekka, at least temporarily, simply by tricking him into thinking that his son has been buried alive. A snitch and all-around jerk Pekka may be, but he proves himself a devoted father by taking leave of the city to track down his kid. Meanwhile, Wylan becomes the beneficiary of the utter devastation of Van Eck’s reputation as he collects his extensive family inheritance.
