Ash Winters is an apprentice magus with two choices—go to magic school or become an executor for the Eye in the Lock. The first means dealing with his estranged and esteemed father, Prelate DeWilde of the Collegium. The second means learning who taught Theo Tamsin the Heart of Storms, a forbidden spell powerful enough to create a hurricane, and killing him for having cast it over the city of New Orleans. As Ash becomes involved in Theo's world, he begins to learn that they are only pawns in a brutal chess game as old as magic itself.