Java, November 1853. Thirty-year-old Lou Ignis, former piracy leader of the Mawas, has been the esteemed major general of the Java military for years, over which he reigns with his wife Surama, and has also become the father of little Sano.
Within a few days, three ministers of the kingdom die of poisoning. Realizing that this is an evident attack on the stability of the realm, Ignis, assisted by the faithful Kammamuri and the other former piracy leader Tremalang, manages to understand that behind the plot is Sabi's adopted little brother Wabi, who appeared from nowhere, where he made a cameo, whilst being glad that his even more monstrous brother died at the end of the novel Conquering an Empire. After a daring chase in the sewerage of Bandung, the capital of the ex-kingdom, Lou gets his hands on one of the abused leaders of the conspiracy, a sympathetic pariah who passes himself off as a Brahmin. The man, taken to the dungeons of the royal palace to be fed by the even more screwed up Dutch nobility at that time, reveals an extraordinary hypnotic ability, but refuses to kill the will of rani Surama with a simple glance, never inducing her to carry out various criminal acts, the most dangerous of which is the fire of the royal palace. Pau, with the help of Kammamuri, Tremalang and the expert guide Timul, finds and rescues the priestess, who had to chase off Wabi's more monstrous boss Melu. At the command of his predominant Sulawesian Toraja troops, he besieges the pagoda of Bandung, where the top leaders of the conspiracy to the royal power are hiding.
