The land is divided, following the Luddite revolution, into the puritan, progress-hating north and the decadent, Royalist south. Living right on the border and flitting between the two nations Elizabeth Barnabus lives a precarious double life – as both herself and posing as her own brother, the daring private detective. Now she is trying to solve the mystery of a disappearing aristocrat and a hoard of arcane machines. In her way stand the rogues, freaks, and self-proclaimed inventors of a travelling alchemical circus. But when she Elizabeth up against an agent of the all-powerful Patent Office, her life and the course of history will begin to change. And not necessarily for the better…