T'Amorach was a thriving world until the Cataclysm, rendered it almost uninhabitable. Centuries later it finds itself on the eve of a war it can ill afford. The surviving cultures maintain a fragile peace, protected within large domed "zones," separated by badlands.

It is upon the caustic low-lying mysts of T'Amorach's badlands that the great myst-clipper ships sail. Most engage in trade or travel, but one legendary ship, The Shicaine, once worked to bring sentient machines to freedom in Rossums' Zone. Then her crew were betrayed and scattered.

Now, five years later, they're starting to turn up dead. Shicaine captain Nathaniel Gedrick races to save his crew and avert all-out war between the zones before a new cataclysm arises.