Steam-driven Sci-fi in an alternative 1920s Britain Winter grips Western Europe. Splinterton is an oasis of volcanic warmth in a frozen sea. Martlet is trapped far beyond help. An unlikely alliance is forged to reach out to her, hoping to bring her back. The enigmatic Tudor Jones, always cheerful, pathologically unreliable, haunts the undertown. Whether he will be a force for good or ill is a question balanced on a knife-edge. Its people scattered, Splinterton sees the return of the sinister Clive Barbican, his long-nurtured plans threatening a devastating conclusion.