Spokane falls, 1889, immediately following the Great Fire, three enterprising protagonists do their best to capitalize on the situation and soon find their fates (and one’s ill-gotten fortune) intertwined for better or worse… but mostly worse. In the prologue we are treated to a parable about the three types of criminals, which, of course, foreshadows the behavior of our central characters. The most fearsome of these being someone who can manipulate others into doing their will without them even realizing it, 'as if by magic'.