Half-goblin boy Joseph Grubb takes the package he found in the Legless Mermaid tavern and runs away from his abusive human uncle and the shape-shifter who is too interested in something that does not belong to him--but his escape plunges him into Port Fayt's criminal underworld and the assortment of elves, trolls, fairies, and humans who live there, as well as the Demon's Watch who are trying to save the port from a deadly threat.