Sick of living in a world of dissolution and poverty, Baron Ezbon Cavalla decides to join forces with two of his fellow aristocrats in a revolution against a powerful empire and a tyrannical ruler who takes things way too personally. When the three barons Nicolas, Ezbon, and Ivan try to pull themselves together, they find that working with each other might not be so preferable to tyranny. Alongside side their rocky relationships with one another, Ezbon and Nicolas are having problems in their own castles. Nicolas' wife is pregnant - and not by him. His servant boy, his lover, is slowly dying, and Nicolas cannot figure out why. On the other side, Ezbon has recently taken up a young fugitive named Charon who he comes to realize has a much darker past than he first anticipated. He should have known better than to let himself get all attached. Blood. War. Love. Betrayal. All that matters in the end is victory.