Saint Aubery's Hold, forty years after the sky dimmed. Jonas Reeve is one of the last Arbiters, walking judges whose verdicts keep the Holds from blood feud. Twelve years ago he hanged a starving woman here for stealing seed grain; now the Steward lies dead on the altar steps, and the Founders want her son hanged by sundown. Jonas has until then to weigh the truth. A grave murder trial at the world's end, where hunger and grief drive everyone.