Lady Elise Antoine de Bellefeuille, concerned for the welfare of her sister (and alerted by one of her scorned suitors), heads to the Rephidim branch of the Office of Bloodlines – an organization dedicated to the registry of recognized breeds of Gallees (dog-morphs) and ranking their comformance to accepted breed standards … and, in the process, determining who in Gallisian society is noble and who is not.

Elise learns, among other things, that her own ranking is fairly high, but that her sister's ranking is extraordinarily so. Lord de Ayde, however, while he personally has a fairly high rank for his line, is a black poodle, whereas Katherine is white. Elise learns that there is a very high probability that their offspring would be spotted or splotched … terrible examples of "pure breeding". Elise is aghast at this revelation, and bids the clerk to keep all of this quiet, lest any rumors spread.