She had heard from an old timer that "there are two things certain, death and taxes, but now they might as well be the same blasted thing." Would you be willing to stand up for your neighbors if it could cost you your own life? Your families lives? Most say yes until it's their turn to answer with action. That is a running question in the death tax. The story follows a teenage Ambrelle as she and her circle of family and friends struggle with the amoral horror of the Tax, a practice of the royals sending a monstrous taxman to steal away a man or boy from their village every year. No one knows what happens to the tax victims, but everyone knows it must not be good. Would you be willing to stand against a near immortal horror and fight for what is right, or would you be another person offering false sympathy with grieving families?