In the winter palace, the King's new physician has more enemies than she at first realises. But she also has more remedies to hand than those who wish her ill can know about. Across the mountains, in the service of a regicidal Protector General, a chief bodyguard has enemies of his own - and his means of combating them are more traditional. Two stories told in parallel on a world that knows nothing of the Culture, where the question is not what happens but who is watching, and why. Iain M. Banks' most subtle novel - a Culture book that never mentions the Culture.
