The ultimate treasure hunt - In the World of Iron, known to mere mortals as Earth, Holly Kendall, EMT, psychiatric nurse, and SCA (Society for Creative Anachronism) warrior, has just arrived at Helicon, ready for a weekend away from the mundane world. But no one has warned Holly just how far away from everyday life she's about to venture. For the first person she encounters on her way to registration is an honest-to-goodness elf, newly escaped from a mental hospital. As he seems to have selective amnesia, including an inability to remember his own name, Holly gives him the moniker of Mac. And although Mac has an incredible tale to spine - a story of torture by unknown enemies, of magical spectacles, and of the fabled Book of Airts which tells everything there is to know about the Twelve Treasures of Chandrakar - Holly quickly realizes he's telling the truth. For Mac is not the first elf she's met, and one of the men pursuing him is far too interested in that other elf as well.

As Holly sees it she has not choice but to help Mac in his search for the Book of Airts and one of the missing Treasures, the Cloak of Night and Daggers. And if they survive the hunt, she'll have to get Mac and his treasures back to Elphame - where an even more dangerous task awaits them, the rescue of Rohannan Melior and Ruth Marlowe....