After many years of fighting monsters, criminals, and corruption in the kingdom of Edra, Sir Willam Hornsby is tired. All he wants is to go home to his brothers in the village of Horntree and fish with them in the pond beyond the tall grass. His plans are ruined when a courier comes carrying a letter, and he is honor-bound to answer an old friend's call for help.

Yevnir Goldleaf is a notorious con artist, greedy and conniving. His looks and charm have gained him many fortunes, and his gambling has lost them all. This time, he intends to keep the treasure that he's found. He has a plan, and Sir Willam is a crucial part, but plans are fragile things, and when they don't go as expected, sometimes all you are left with is luck.

The Hollow Mountain looms over the port town of Biverna, where dwarves and men quarrel and witches have long been ostracized. Elk with twenty-pointed crowns roam the forests, and magical squirrel-like creatures climb the trees near the mountain's peak, but before our knight ever walks the Pastoran wood or climbs the mountain, he must sail through the Calluseen Strait. The strait is almost always calm, but when the clouds grow dark and the rain falls heavy, when lightning pierces the sky and the waves crash hard enough to rock a ship, it means something is coming, something that has long been waiting in the deep...