Growing up at Madam Opera's Estimable Marine Society for Foundling Boys and Girls, Rossamünd Bookchild–a boy with an unfortunate name–has led a life sheltered from the dangers of the world. But this all changes the day the man with the strange red-and-pale-blue eyes recruits him into the service of the Emperor. Rossamünd has been drafted into the ranks of the Half-Continent's "lamplighters"–soldiers who protect the empire's roads from all evil.
Now Rossamünd must begin the journey of his life, traveling the Half-Continent, a world full of people who can be as predatory as any monster he can imagine. And when he falls in with the mysterious and talented Europe, who can shoot electricity out of her body and call lightning down from the sky, he learns that some people can truly be lethal....