A jobless jester and a misguided magpie venture into a land where technology is booming— but trouble is brewing. Dame Elsebet de Whellen has ruled her mildly magical, high-tech country for 50 prosperous years. Now it's facing a crisis three generations in the making, and the bold steps she's taken to save it have gone disastrously off the rails. She needs a hero who can calm her mind, cast a spell, and find a missing sorcerer. Instead she gets Malfred Murd, former Royal Fool, booted from his job and now scrounging a living around the corners of the Kingdom. What starts as Fred's quick attempt to con Dame Elsebet escalates until he—and his self-appointed magpie advisor Corvinalias— are hopelessly entangled in a desperate mission that might cost a Fool his life and a people their future.