Bartholomew Kettle won't live long. Changelings never do. The child of a human mother and a faery father, he is despised by both his races; if the humans don't hang him for witchcraft, the faeries will do something worse. So his mother keeps him locked away, hidden from the world in the faery slums of Bath. But one day Bartholomew witnesses a mysterious and beautiful woman kidnapping another changeling through a shadowy ring of feathers, and he suddenly finds himself at the center of a web of intrigue and danger that spans the entire country. Changelings are surfacing in the river hundreds of miles away, their bodies empty of blood and bone and their skin etched with red tattoos. A powerful figure sits in the shadows, pushing the pieces into place for some terrible victory. When a sinister faery begins to stalk Bartholomew's every step, he knows it's his turn. Something is coming for him. Something needs him. But when you're a changeling, there's nowhere to run.