Content Warning: This section refers to physical and psychological abuse, graphic violence, murder, genocide, discrimination, and panic attacks.

One of the two alternating narrators of the novel, Paedyn Gray is a young girl who lives in an infamous area in the slums called Loot Alley. The story opens with her evading guards, or Imperials, as she goes back to her makeshift shelter in the middle of the night. She has just stolen honey buns from a local store, as well as red silk fabric for her best friend, Adena. She eventually reaches her shack, which she calls the Fort, where Adena greets her and happily takes the food and fabric. Paedyn regrets having to steal from other poor people to survive, but the situation in the kingdom of Ilya has worsened since the Purging. A long time ago, a mysterious Plague swept across the kingdom, killing many and endowing some of the survivors with supernatural abilities. The latter are now known as the Elites, like Adena, for instance, who can phase through any material. Thirty years before the story begins, however, the King started persecuting, or “purging,” the Ordinaries, or people without abilities. To protect the Elites’ power, the Ordinaries are now systematically hunted and killed, and only Adena knows that Paedyn is secretly one of them.