After her father is brutally murdered, Sefia flees into the wilderness with her aunt Nin, who teaches her to hunt, track, and steal. But when Nin is kidnapped none of her survival skills can help her discover where Nin's been taken, or if she's even alive. The only clue is the odd rectangular object her father left behind, an object she comes to realize is a book -- a marvelous item unheard of in her otherwise illiterate society. With the aid of a mysterious stranger with dark secrets of his own, Sefia sets out to rescue her aunt and find out what really happened the day her father was killed.