Jack Behck and his friend Freaky Pietr lead tolerable, unattractive lives as younger members of a small-time gang in Kontrek. Uneducated, and so shy he can barely talk to decents, Jack makes his way by pulling valuables out of people's homes and pockets. Woefully inexperienced in the world of crime, Pietr is tasked with the gang’s menial labour. Having both been in worse places, they scramble to protect what they have when they find out the gang is under threat.
Jack somehow negotiates a deal to be a commissioned thief for an upright aristocrat. Pietr agrees to undergo a procedure that supposedly will give him magic. Now working under a cover identity, Jack hides his new life from gang mates and his current reality from new acquaintances. Meanwhile, Pietr undergoes tutelage from a foreign-raised girl who gave him the magic no one like him is meant to have.
This is the first time either have ventured into the kinds of trouble powerful people might notice. Secrecy remains essential. In Kontrek, everyone is kept tidily in their place: money or magic in the wrong hands must be corrected.
