Lucy Krysop sacrificed her freedom to save Lieutenant Jasper, and now finds herself a captive of the National Organization for Responsible Alchemy. Daphne Cochrane, NORA’s founder, is determined to learn Lucy’s secrets at any cost. Lucy's been trained to fight, to spy, and to survive … and she knows from her training that eventually she'll break under Daphne's torture. Everyone does. Her only hope is to find a way to escape or to die before she reveals too much.
After a failed rescue attempt, Colonel Mayes’s team of alchemists must come to terms with the loss of Lucy. Without her, they must find a way forward to create the Philosopher’s Stone and save Galena from Origin’s plan to destroy it.
Lieutenant Jasper isn’t ready to accept that Lucy is gone. Weak and injured, Jasper resorts to dark measures to save her.