Under Miss Beatrice Lockwood's plain gray gown, a pistol waits at the ready. Beatrice is a paid companion on a secret mission and with a secret past and she must be prepared to fight for her life at any moment. Yet she is thrown off guard by the fierce-looking man who joins her in foiling a crime outside a fancy ball and who then disappears into the shadows, leaving only his card. Joshua Gage is a cipher in the shadows with a hypnotically calm voice and an ebony-and-steel cane.