Bren Cameron, human diplomat in residence, usually represents Tabini-aiji, the ruler of the aishidi'tat, the dominant political entity on the alien world of the atevi. But Tabini's grandmother Ilisidi, the dowager, has been known to borrow Bren's services from time to time--and she has her own notions how to solve the simmering hostilities in the south of the atevi continent. Her plan requires trusting a southern warlord about whom Bren has intense misgivings, but then, what does a human know? This time, Ilisidi is betting the hard-won northern peace--and the lives of the whole aishidi'tat--on being right. She has commandeered the Red Train, taken aboard what passengers she chooses, and headed for the snowy roof of the world, where a hard-scrabble town and its minor lord are the first pieces she intends to put in play.