Gender fluid Sallot Lean is a thief who wants nothing more than to escape the drudgery of life as a highway robber and get closer to the upper-class, and the nobles who destroyed their home. Sal auditions to become a member of The Left Hand, the Queen's personal assassins, named after the rings she wears, in order to infiltrate the court and get revenge. But the audition is a fight to the death filled with clever circus acrobats, lethal apothecaries, and vicious ex-soldiers. A childhood as a common criminal hardly prepared Sal for the trials. And as Sal succeeds in the competition, and wins the heart of Elise, an intriguing scribe at court, they start to dream of a new life and a different future, but one that Sal can have only if they survive.