In a world where eating meat from too high up the food chain can cause mutation and monstrosity, the College of Barbers is responsible for managing everything related to blood: frequently hands-on. Amity has deep scars from a troubled past. She's received a second lease on life studying under a barber-surgeon in a recently founded settlement that's planned as the new site of her homeland's colonial capital. Her job is difficult, violent, and about to get far more complicated, as a supposedly easy task uncovers a mystery that threatens to upend the life she's just started to build.