As a young boy camping in the foothills of the West Wall, Giem Kyler stumbles across a wonderfully bizarre creature thought not to exist within the miles high confines of the Basin crater. Curiosity turns this first encounter bloody, leaving the eleven year old with a scar and a lingering desire to know... Seven years later this same curiosity lands him in a pinch of trouble with the kinds of people his Father wouldn't be real keen on, and he is persuaded into a trip back up those crumbling hills in search of answers. With his best friend Satchel at his side - always dependable, ever the cynic - Giem returns. On the back of happenstance and less-than-stellar decision making he, incredibly, uncovers the answer, discovers a truth. And this truth is complicated. Dangerous, even. What he finds is far more than an ecological oddity: the dragon hatchling's very existence here in the fringes of the Basin thrusts the trio center stage of an ideological struggle between superpowers half a world away. Who she is threatens to turn a cold war very, very hot.