The first of three volumes in this trilogy opens on the barren plains of Below, where a teenage boy named Hokk lives in exile with his fox sidekick, Nym, amid the remnants of our modern age. On the floating islands in the skies of Above, the islands edges are borders no one dares cross until the ritual burials that send their dead to Below. Here Elia toils in endless drudgery until the day she discovers a mystery swirling around her familys past. But before she can unravel the secrets, a series of natural disasters rumble through Above, bringing both worldsand Hokk and Eliaever closer, until the day the earth crumbles below Elias feet and she falls. When Hokk rescues the strange girl who miraculously survives her plunge into the sea, he realizes she might be the key to finally ending his banishment. Both teens are desperate to return to the homes theyve lost, and their journey together will propel them across endless plains, through shattered cities and into mirrored palaces in a centuries-old battle for the very earth and sky around them.