In the follow-up to Flotsam, Peridot is headed for its second cataclysm. War has sealed borders and locked down the skies. The Five, Peridot's alchemist gods, have seen one of their number die and another fall in their efforts to protect their world from invaders beyond the stars. Defeated and diminished, they are ignoring the prayers of their people, and the rapidly unraveling world must fend for itself.

Talis and the orphaned crew of the lost airship Wind Sabre have a plan to set things to rights, but they're stranded on a rock far from the heart of the conflict. When an old enemy offers them a ship and a path forward, it comes with strings that will pull them further from the home they are so desperate to save.

Their broken planet has been through a lot, but if Talis and her crew can't navigate hostile skies, shifting allegiances, and subverted governments, their enemies could claim a power that would destroy Peridot for good.