In a world of sentient animals and humans, the hardheaded (and hard-shelled) wizard Clothahump searches across the dimensions for another kind of wizard to help defeat the looming threat posed by the armies of the Plated Folk. What he gets is Jonathan-Thomas Meriweather, part-time would-be rock guitarist and janitor, who finds that with the use of a unique instrument called a duar, he can perform magic by playing and choosing from his well-worn repertoire of rock. Trouble is, while the lyrics he sings may be righteous, the magic they spawn is all too often something else.