Xiatoktok has to take over his bank via a bloody coup. Boardroom politics won't cut it when your bank, and your Clan, are run by time-vampires. In a city on the edge of the frontier, in a world balanced between apocalypses. This, of course, means he is responsible for running things when a four way war breaks out around them. Somebody's got to finance the new weapons, right? And the new crops. And, alright, maybe starting a new cult. Espionage. Blackmail. Kidnapping. Fraud. Poisoning. Getting bullied by your wife into taking a concubine. Launching IPO's based on ancient, presumed lost biotechnology. And, of course, surviving his family. Good thing he's a time-vampire too, or he might be really worried.