The Summer Realm is in mortal danger. Huge flying beasts have found a portal into their world and are devouring entire villages of people. And Ulysses Rasselas, Minister of Secrets and Lies, has been tasked with pulling together his agents to save it.
It's an impossible mission, and all he's got to work with is a thick-headed guard, a cocky thief, a reclusive mage, and a complete unknown - a witch the Guild of Mages called in from another world. But time is running out, so he deploys his team of parrots to all four corners of the realm with instruction to obtain ingredients for a unique spell the mages insist will work.
And while the thief mistakenly recruits a rookie partner, and the reclusive connects to new found family, and the witch from another world finds a lead in a soldier's bed, the guard is sent all over the realm on his airship to satisfy the wishes of a magical shopkeeper, whose bitter heartbreak insists on tit-for-tat before helping him with his quest.
Their adventures take then through towns and deserts, across mountain ranges and into a prison, as they begin to understand what is at stake. Will they be able to find them before the whole realm has been ravaged?