In Tortall, two centuries before the Lioness rides, 16-year-old Rebakah (Beka) Cooper begins her work for the Provost’s Guard. She’s long dreamed of this position with the police, and she tells her story through the journal she keeps beginning on with her first day as a trainee or “Puppy.” She, her fellow “Dogs,” and the purple-eyed cat Pounce, work hard to make the city safer, especially the crime-ridden slums where Beka grew up.