Twenty-year-old college undergraduate Lyra is once again thrown together with Malcolm Polstead, now a professor, after Lyra and her daemon, Pantalaimon, receive secrets from a dying man about a daemon-haunted city and the origins of Dust.

Lyra Belacqua, aka Lyra Silvertongue, is an undergraduate at St. Sophia's College. She and her daemon, the soft-furred pine marten Pantalaimon, are alienated to the point of hostility. Lyra falls under the influence of popular writers who express 'universal skepticism' and contempt for sentiment, kindness and faith. When Pantalaimon witnesses a murder, both of them are pulled into a conspiracy involving the Magisterium. Lyra reconnects with Malcolm Polstead, now a professor at the College, but they are soon drawn back into a battle Lyra thought she'd left behind forever. -- adapted from jacket and online reviews