After living for nearly sixteen years on the outskirts of Jegavol with nothing but worry-filled, adoptive parents and nasty rumors to explain how she got there, Celeste is more than ready for an escape. So when this escape comes in a bizarre way, complete with the ability to spend time with her best friend Vernon, she should be overjoyed. Instead, she's ridden with anxiety, constantly wondering if her parents are alright.

Finally, she needs to personally ensure her parents' well-being, so she knocks on the door to her home. A foreign soldier from Wrutome answers, and she spots her home being ransacked. In the midst of absolute shock, the soldiers attempt to kidnap her. Somehow, she escapes from their grasp, but then she watches in complete horror Vernon get ripped from her life. Celeste is shattered, but she determines in her heart to get Vernon back.

She even goes into the dreaded Dominaek Forest to achieve this. By what she initially accounts as sheer luck, she finds a strange boy willing, and apparently able, to help her. In time, she begins to truly believe she will soon be reunited with Vernon. However, Celeste has no idea of the threat she and her curious new acquaintance pose to someone much more powerful and cunning than they could ever dream.