The story is told in flashback to her unborn child; she recalls her return to the city at age ten, and tells how the restoration came about.

The unnamed girl's foe, the usurper, is also never given a proper name: "His face was scarred and twisted, his towering form draped in black robes that flew in his wake like the wings of a crow that dies in midair and cartwheels to the ground.

The girl finds in the capital city a million loyalists and former soldiers, all united by an oath of rebellion, waiting for a leader whose prophetic return will be heralded by a dimmed sun and a burning angel.

In her quest to remove the usurper, the main character befriends a number of these outwardly obedient, inwardly rebellious people, including the baker-slave Notorincus and his slave-of-a-slave, Astrahn, a former general of the Damavand and renowned tactician, who brave terrifying odds with humor and selflessness to protect the protagonist, while unaware that she is their queen.

For example, Notorincus reveals his cry of battle to be "I’ll never bake another waffle-torte for a single imperial soldier as long as I live!"