The Sutanites, the rulers of Ean, control the people, how they think and what they do, using scent magic. They remove threats to their power by crushing or retraining scent-talented young Eanites before their skills are fully developed. Targas, a scent master with unusual skills, newly arrived in Ean, is the catalyst for change. The vicious Sutanite elite will stop at nothing to find and destroy him while the Resistance see him as their only chance for freedom. Success and failure are balanced on a knife's edge in the resultant civil war where the outcome will be determined by who controls the most powerful scent magic. Will the Eanites gain their freedom at last or will they be crushed once and for all by their foreign rulers?