In a Dying Earth of wizards and walled cities, a boy climbs out of poverty when he becomes an assistant to a moneylender's debt collector, then enters a career as henchman to a young, ambitious thaumaturge. But Baldemar's career as a wizard's minion goes sideways after a powerful entity left over from the creation of the cosmos finds him useful for its own ends.

Now he must tread a perilous path peopled by dukes and demons, spellslingers and secret agents, assassins and academics, plus a pair of vengeful wizards who want their stolen treasures returned.

His course will lead him through the Underworld and Overworld, and along shadowy paths in the tenebrous realm known as the Glooms, to a final confrontation that will test Baldemar's hard-won knowledge to the utmost.

Contains the eight stories that ran in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, plus two that only appeared in anthologies.