Miss Endicott's life as a Conciliator is off to a bad start: a strange plot is being hatched in the tunnels beneath London, and her headquarters have been torched. Not only that, the child she is nannying has disappeared, while her mother, whom everyone believed dead, has reappeared! A blessing, or a curse? Will two Conciliators be enough to defeat the mysterious master? Assuming, that is, that two Conciliators could ever work together...