Xiatoktok has to take over his bank via a bloody coup.  Boardroom politics won't cut it when your bank, and your Clan, are run by time-vampires.  In a city on the edge of the frontier, in a world balanced between apocalypses.  This, of course, means he is responsible for running things when a four way war breaks out around them.  Somebody's got to finance the new weapons, right?  And the new crops.  And, alright, maybe starting a new cult.  Espionage.  Blackmail.  Kidnapping.  Fraud.  Poisoning.  Getting bullied by your wife into taking a concubine.  Launching IPO's based on ancient, presumed lost biotechnology.  And, of course, surviving his family.  Good thing he's a time-vampire too, or he might be really worried.