In the wealthy merchants’ district of Ketterdam, a major port city in Kerch, a young guard named Joost patrols the mansion of Councilman Hoede. Joost had wished for a more thrilling assignment, but after an ambassador’s recent assassination, the Merchant Council has increased security for “merchers” like Hoede. Joost passes the evening dreaming about Anya, an indentured servant to Hoede and a Grisha who possesses magical abilities. Anya is a Healer, a Corporalki Grisha who specializes in the human body, with the ability to stop the heart or snap the bones. She made a bruise on Joost’s cheek vanish simply by touching it, and after the experience Joost fell hopelessly in love with her.

Joost enters the Grisha workshop but finds only Retvenko, a Squaller Grisha who controls winds to keep ships safe. Retvenko hopes Joost has information about Yuri, Hoede’s Fabrikator Grisha, who fell sick and then disappeared after Hoede took him away for a mysterious mission. Joost doesn’t know where Yuri is. Retvenko tells him Hoede has taken Anya away as well.

All guards are summoned to the boathouse, where Joost discovers a giant freestanding cell made of metal, with one wall of one-way glass. Anya, a small boy, and a guard are inside the cell, while Hoede, another mercher, and many other guards crowd around it.