A city-state crumbling into ruins.

An ancient system of values torn down.

The noble families who upheld it, erased.

Clemenza Giudice, a dispossessed noble-turned-clockmaker, has one goal: do whatever it takes to regain her family's social status. Even if it costs her soul. So when she is asked to steal an illicit piece of technology for the man who took everything from her, Clemenza negotiates in hopes of saving her family from utter ruin.

But people are harder to control than clocks. And now she's stuck on a journey into the heart of a dangerous capital rumored to hide illegal experiments with corrupted aether. Her companions include her rival clockmaker, an ostentatious smuggler, his sister enslaved at a pleasure house, his apprenticed thief, and a handsome architect who harbors many secrets.

The true cost of helping her family might mean becoming like the man who ruined them, no matter the guilt she may feel. In an Italian Renaissance-inspired world, Clemenza and her companions must pursue their own interests---or protect their broken society, where betrayal, theft, and murder flourish.