Gaunts regemente "Tanith First and Only" hotar att upplösas. Kan det gå så illa?
   En viktig fånge som sitter inne med avgörande information kräver att få tala med Gaunt. Det slutar med att vår härdade kommissarie finner sig vara på flykt tillsammans med fången, jagad av diverse envetna förföljare.
   Pulled back from the front line, the men of the Tanith First await news of their next deployment. But when an enemy prisoner is brought in for interrogation, Gaunt is drawn into a murderous web of intrigue. Who can be trusted, and exactly what does the prisoner know that makes him so valuable? The fate of the Sabbat Worlds Crusade rests upon the answers, and Gaunt must find them out before he is eliminated.