Bone-weary war veteran Nobody just wants to return home to his wife. He’s really not interested in a gaggle of teenaged girls who are angling for a husband.

Sixteen-year-old Justice isn’t looking for a marriage partner either. She just wants to release her sisters from Father’s imprisonment in his tallest tower. The easiest way would be to find suitors for them.

However, that is not so easy, for Justice’s elder sisters are strange. What with All-Gifted’s madness, Protectress’s hair writhing with snakes, Death-Bringer’s grief (not to mention her strange name), Shining’s too-overt sexuality, Maiden’s tart tongue, Shadow’s crippling shyness, no sensible man would want her sisters as wives. Which leaves Justice, the seventh daughter, the one who possesses a quiet authority.

It’s been a long time since Nobody last saw his wife. But things keep happening to prevent him from going home. The latest obstacle is when he blunders into a mystery about King Silver-Tongued’s twelve daughters, who mysteriously disappear each night only to reappear at dawn with their slippers in shreds.

Nobody is really not interested in any of this. But he needs the King’s favor to give him money so that he can buy passage on a ship to get home. But will King Silver-tongued actually help? A strange attraction to one of the King’s daughters keeps him lingering in Sikelia, despite the fact that he is old enough to be her father…

Justice has noticed the admiration in Lord Nobody’s eyes. Recently, he even proclaimed his undying love for her. But what does he really want? And doesn’t he have a wife already?