Kovacs recruits an unlikely partner to watch his back during a banquet at the Bancroft home, where Ortega oversees the night's grisly entertainment.

As Kovacs reconnects with a figure from his past, his tangled history with the Protectorate, the Uprising and Quell plays out in flashbacks.

His world rocked, Kovacs requests a dipper to help him sew up the Bancroft case quickly. Ortega races to identify the mystery woman from Fight Drome.