Estevan, a faerie living under a human identity, investigates the powerful Council exploiting the Otherworld while trying to keep his true nature hidden. The human whose place he took, known as the Hungry Girl, has been left among the fae and joins an expedition into the Sea Beyond, only to witness the brutality of imperial conquest. Though a pact has split their lives across worlds, both discover that the same empire threatens their adopted homes. Their separate struggles converge in a fight against persecution, colonial violence and a system that profits from magical lands and people.