Times are a-changing in Ankh-Morpork's Night Watch.

New recruits have been hired to reflect the city's diversity, including Corporal Carrot (technically a dwarf), Lance-constable Cuddy (really a dwarf), Lance-constable Detritus (a troll), and Lance-constable Angua (a woman ... full moons aside). What's more, Captain Sam Vimes is getting married and retiring from the Watch.

For good. Which is a shame, because no one knows the streets of Ankh-Morpork or its criminal underworld better than him. And someone armed and dangerous has been getting ideas about power and destiny and lost kings, committing a string of seemingly random murders across the city.

The new recruits will need to learn fast ...