Daring heroics, narrow escapes, passionate affairs... these things just don't always come easily to a weak, wrinkled, arthritic mole rat like Drolen. Blessed, or perhaps cursed, by an unerring instinct for human politics, Drolen returns to a place of past regrets, the city of Orem, where he begins to groom young Nua to claim the throne left open by her father's untimely death. But meanwhile, Drolen's last protege -- the deposed mole rat king Utak -- starts to draw followers for a bloody rampage that may destroy the city before Nua's own coup d'etat can come to fruition. Drolen's scheming might just land him between an angry mob and the palace guards, with nowhere to run this time.