Fitch is an orphan, a servant to dogs, and the lowest of the low in Castle Blacking, but he is a boy in love and he'll face untold terrors to prove himself.

Karyzu is a blaggart, a brawler and a drunk, but he's also a legendary sword fighter and the only man around who has journeyed through Hell and lived to tell about it.

Pursuing them both is Clayton Dower, the mysterious grave digger who won't rest until he sees what belongs buried stay buried.

In a journey that will test the limits of their courage, boy and man will travel to the underworld and face scenes of obscene torture, abject hopelessness and monsters both vile and ridiculous, while above them the world of mortals stumbles inexorably into civil war.