Close to a hundred years have passed since the events of The Rover; and Edgewick Lamplighter, the Rover, is now a master librarian at Great Library. Unlike his fellow scholars, he spends time in the outside world, tracking down rare and necessary volumes for the Vault of All Known Knowledge. But given his advanced age, it has become necessary for him to take on an apprentice for these mysterious journeys abroad, namely Juhg, a halfling as green as he himself was, when his first adventure as the Rover began. Juhg, too, is dissatisfied with his station in life. He is bored by the doldrums of library life, not really caring about the conservation of books and knowledge - until a rare volume he is sent to retrieve turns out to be ensorcelled and sets fire to the Vault's priceless collection. Dark forces are out to destroy those who might defend the world against them, and it is up to these lowly librarians to secure the volumes that, if they fall into the wrong hands, will lead to a new era of darkness.