From the introduction: Justice has failed. In Crest, the kingdom of humanity, everyone who creates problems for the nobility is shipped across the sea to face imprisonment. The criminal, the deranged, the inconvenient, and the uncomfortable; they are cast across the sea to the greedy island of Lukatt whose shores let nothing slip free. The upper levels of government are rife with corruption. Aristocrats outlaw hunting in all but the sparsest environments, claiming regions with game for themselves. Nobles prosecute cake-thieves as committing conspiracy against the kingdom. Even the bishops and crusaders are not above humiliating those they outrank, arranging false crimes to remove their competition.