Sixteen-year-old Syl Hellais is the daughter of the Illyri governor of Europe, the first of her race born on Earth, secretly sympathetic to the natives who refuse to give up. When she helps free human rebels Paul and Steven Kerr from prison, she's ultimately forced to flee with them, struggling to reach the resistance in the Scottish Highlands. Meanwhile, factions within the Illyri jockey for position and dominance, even as a deadly secret threatens to destroy the status quo once and for all.