What would you do if your son was executed by the local King for failing to solve a puzzle about his daughters' disappearances?Would you attempt to solve the puzzle yourself? Nobody is a bone-weary war veteran who just wants to return home to his wife. But things keep happening that prevent him from gaining his wish. The latest obstacle is when he blunders into a mystery about King Silver-Tongued's twelve daughters, who mysteriously disappear each night only to reappear at dawn with their slippers in shreds. Nobody is really not interested in any of this. But he needs the King's favor to give him money so that he can buy passage on a ship to get home. But will King Silver-tongued actually help? A strange attraction to one of the King's daughters, sixteen-year-old Justice, keeps him lingering in Sikelia, despite the fact that he is old enough to be her father. Then his younger son Playful is murdered by King Silver-Tongued because he cannot figure out why the princesses are disappearing each night. Nobody cannot let this tragedy stand. Grief-stricken, he resolves to avenge his son by solving the puzzle himself. Then he plans to wrest power away from crazed Silver-Tongued by marrying one of his daughters.