Bybiis el Putuki and her friend Opin the healer must navigate the demands of the khalif in Utica who would turn Opin’s gift to serve him. Jesse Hartley and Hershel Henry find each other, but each is very changed from recent events. Can they reawaken the currents of feeling between them?

When Bybiis is able to force a release from the khalif’s control, she and Opin land at a small fishing village from where Mrs. Shaw is exploring the ruins of a lost city. Jesse Hartley joins them, but the conflicts that grew in Utica get more intense. Jesse is distracted when Hershel Henry invites her to rejoin her father the Consortium General at the rainbow bridge construction site.