Continually reborn as youth each time they die, six friends of an ostracized race risk all to discover the truth of their reality.
Airlin is repulsed when a Gost who has claimed the body of a drowned neighbor washes ashore near her mountain village. But when the demon seems to recognize her, Airlin risks everything to save him, hoping he knows of her past. Instead of answers though, Airlin suffers the loss of her grandfather, gains an unwelcome attraction to the creature, Ruel, and develops more questions about a world that no longer seems to follow the conventions of reason.
When Ruel and four other unlikely companions accompany Airlin on a perilous journey through Hearkland in search of her father and her memory, Airlin is forced to examine her beliefs as the adventure becomes a test of survival. As the group encounters dangerous ports, redmen with vicious screech hounds, disturbing anomalies with the sun and weather, slave barges and a death cave, Airlin’s cold rational heart opens to feel love and embrace the mystery of her impossible reality.