Following the events of Tris's Book, the four children, their teachers and Duke Vedris travel to Gold Ridge Valley, a fief currently experiencing a three-year drought and grassfires in its outlying regions. The children’s magic has continued to intertwine and behave unpredictably, each child’s workings taking on characteristics of the others’. When Daja heats a cluster of iron rods, it responds by becoming plant-like and apparently alive.