Ynnam is a young boy, disenchanted by working on a farm. He craves adventure in the far away city of Deadshell. His father is distant and cold towards him and his brothers are away hunting, but when they fail to return  Ynnam is concerned they may never come back. Anders is an Imperially trained Sentinel, sent on a puntitive assignment to guard a prison on the frontier. His assignment may not be as dull as he’s imagined however, as events beyond his control begin to manifest. Zalu is a postwoman from Deadshell’s undercity. She’s caught between two worlds, the opulence of the surface and the homeliness of the undercity. She discovers a sinister conspiracy that forces her to take sides and join a revolution. Each of them is linked, thought they don’t know it, and all play separate parts in a larger story beyond their imaginings.