For Alys Kinnear, becoming a wizard was her life's ambition, but it's an ambition that might just cost her her life. Does a country girl from Éire have what it takes to handle the dangerous and inglorious realities that come with being a practitioner in the magic-infused modern day city of London? She quickly finds herself confronted by street thugs trying to steal her new employer's property and a client whose home turns out to be a former asylum filled with the angry ghosts of former patients. With her new Familiars, a pair of snow leopards she rescued from an unscrupulous shop owner, Alys must overcome these and the more mundane day-to-day difficulties of studying to become a full-fledged Wizard. Because before she expects it, she'll find herself tested in ways she never imagined.