The year is 1328, the Year of the Prophet. In the city of Sikandagor resides the Khan, the ruler of the Sikandastan Khanate, living in luxury while his subjects suffer in slums. Crime is rife, the authorities are corrupt, and all while the country is at risk; insurrectionists attack the East, and the looming threat from two warring foreign nations, the Jazeera Caliphate and the Great Tonghai, is ever-present. Living in Sikandagor, Ramin, a merchant's son, is leaving home for the first time to establish his own trading post in the far-off city of Jagrâkand. However, a cruel twist of fate thrusts Ramin directly into a world of vicious conflict.

Sweeping across the ancient empires of Central Asia, The Theatre of Shadows is a tale of soldiers, spies, bandits, and rulers, all caught in a twisted web of love and murder, victory and loss, deceit, and corruption.