Prince Pietro is celebrating his thirteenth birthday when Marmela, an envoy from the distant kingdom of Galariland, arrives with grim news: shadowy creatures have been poisoning Galariland's soil and preventing crops from growing — and the same blight has appeared in PopoloCrois. The king sends Pietro to Galariland as his kingdom's ambassador, to see the damage firsthand and learn how the Galari people are fighting back. Once Pietro arrives, he discovers there is no way home, and his royal title carries no weight with people who have suffered too long. Cut off and far from everything familiar, Pietro must earn the trust of a new world while doing what he can to help the land recover.