When Ramsey Kimball is time-zapped into the body of his other level twin Kaskar he gets his bearings in no time at all. In a few days he's learned the language and customs of Ulad (the natives wear leotards and cat's head decorations, hatch) and plunged into the intrigue over a successor to the crown. Maybe Ramsey is at home in Ulad because it's so familiar from reading other Norton books, though for better or worse, this world is less complicated than some. Anyway, it seems the Empress and the Enlightened One, the Reverend Osythes, have planned to put Prince Berthal on the throne in place of the old Kaskar, now technically dead, who was in the power of the villainous Ochall. But Ramsey has other ideas . . . and a gift of prophetic dreaming that enables him to claim power for himself, outwit everyone and win the lovely Thecla. Ramsey's motives are no more human than anyone else's and it's hard to figure out just what he's doing in this fancy dress game . . . and what you're doing playing with Norton's same old stacked deck one more time.