Persinette, adopted daughter of a reclusive witch, finds herself greatly inconvenienced one morning when a stranger falls on top of her head. Weise, said stranger, was in the process of fleeing his home village after an unfortunate episode with a fiery pyre and an angry mob when he found himself falling from a rather uncooperative tree. Questionable first impressions and antisocial persuasions aside, Persinette and her centuries-old sorceress mother Nimue give Weise refuge. However, the stability of such an arrangement is not to last. No, a surprise visit from a "good fairy" and a misguided royal entourage force Persinette to kiss her much-loved stability goodbye.
She and Weise are thrown into a cross-country journey, following shadows and whispers across the dying lands in search of a suddenly and inexplicably missing Nimue. In between foiling arranged marriages and evading obnoxiously resourceful bounty hunters, they discover that the quest they began is hardly the one they will see to the end. They have stirred forces older than legend and find they must race against the future to save their rapidly deteriorating present.