"As the Pallaseen's campaign to bring Perfection and Correctness to an imperfect world rages on, Eres Ffenegh - 'the City on the Back of a Crab' - is the next state slated for conquest. But its citizens won't give up sovereignty easily. The siege has dragged into the harsh Eresi winter and the defenders - both locals and Pal renegades - hold an uneasy alliance against the enemy at the gates, while the Pal army is constantly looking over its shoulder for the next self-destructive dictate of their government back home. Within the city, Devil Jack, a good man apprenticed to the notorious conjurer and bawd known as the Widow, is driven to bargaining with hell to get back what he's lost. Meanwhile Kiffel ea Leachan is the city's champion, a child of privilege who's just lost everything to the invaders. Both must try to survive the siege and make their own destinies in a world that's cut them loose. Outside the city, the Pals have been desperately waiting for reinforcements to take the city, but when new soldiers finally march in with the winter it's the sort of help that might just damn them all..."-- Front flap of jacket.