When a naked, amnesiac stranger is found outside a remote highland village, he is taken in by Kerin, a widow whose unconventional ways are tolerated because her son Damaru is "skytouched." All skytouched are able to affect matter, and are tested by the Beloved Daughter, the living goddess who rules the world from the City of Light. If he is found worthy, Damaru will become a Consort of the skymothers, the gods themselves. Kerin and the strangernicknamed Saisaccompany Damaru to the City, but as Sais recovers his memory, he realizes that the world does not work the way everyone else assumes it...