Kaytin, new to a City she never even dreamed existed and still finding her way, accepts an invitation to a party hosted by an enigmatic woman. Her experiences change everything. Drawn into the City's underworld of zero-gravity gladiators and Temple politics, she soon finds her new circle of friends offers her the key to a world she never imagined.

Tsimbar, a young novice of the Quickener beginning his life at the Temple, agrees to act as the Temple's representative at another party, and meets someone who will turn his life upside down.

Royat, adrift without purpose or direction, volunteers as entertainment at a party, an experience that makes him question everything he thought he knew, and prods him to volunteer as Sacrifice to the Ostiary, the AI god of change.

Kaytin, Tsimbar, and Royat find their lives in disarray in the turbulent wake of the mysterious Jakalva, an inscrutable power broker whose parties shake up the lives of all they touch. Welcome to the City, the far-future, post-scarcity world where the people worship AI gods of unimaginable power through rituals of sex and connection.