"1636. The United States of Europe, the new nation formed by an alliance between the Swedish King Gustavus Adolphus and the West Virginians hurled back in time, is on the verge of civil war. His brain injured, Gustavus is no longer in command. Swedish chancellor Oxenstierna, a leader of aristocratic reaction against democracy, is gathering the forces of the hidebound ruling class to drown the revolution in a bloodbath. In Magdeburg, the capital of the USE, Mike Stearns' wife Rebecca Abrabanel is organizing popular resistance to Oxenstierna's plot. Princess Kristina, heir to the USE's throne, is now residing in Magdeburg and is giving them her full support. But another plot is underway--one in the heart of the capital itself, and with murder as its method"--