In the city of Alante, the descendants of the Greek gods live alongside mortals. Io is the youngest of three sisters, descended from the Fates. She is able to see threads: shimmering silver lines connecting every person. When a new relationship is formed, a new thread appears. When a person's life-thread is cut, it's their time to die. Io uses her gifts as a private investigator, trying to make ends meet in a world which treats other-born people like her with suspicion and prejudice. Then Io is witness to a murder - but this is no ordinary murder. Io can clearly see that the killer's life-thread has already been severed. This woman should be long dead. More complicated still, there is another witness: Edei, a member of the Rossi mob, the gangsters who rule Alante. And what Io can see immediately, although Edei cannot, is that there is a bright silver fate-thread connecting them.