These are uncertain, unstable times, with the desire for a new republic and repeated attempts to overthrow the monarchy of Alfonso XIII. Joaquín Córdoba is urgently summoned by his friend Mateo, and he reaches Toledo as a characteristic fog masks the city's millennial splendour from view. Joaquín is slowly immersed in a series of unpleasant events on the banks of the Tagus, as one after another, the corpses of prostitutes appear with empty eye sockets, and nobody seems concerned. Joaquin follows the clues to a strange group of young people who call themselves the Order of Toledo, and his investigation will lead to danger for himself and those around him. And as the murders evolve he comes to suspect even his own friend.