Generations after dragons vanished from the world, the great sea serpents finally complete their long migration up the Rain Wild River to cocoon and be reborn. But they emerge too late and too damaged: the new dragons are stunted, malformed creatures, unable to fly and unable to fend for themselves. A burden on the impoverished Rain Wild settlements that must feed them, the dragons are deemed a problem to be removed. The Traders resolve to send them upriver toward the legendary, half-mythical Elderling city of Kelsingra, escorted by a band of dragon keepers recruited from the society's own outcasts. Among them is Thymara, a young Rain Wilder marked from birth by black claws and scaled skin, abandoned by custom but able to survive the toxic forest. Drawn into the expedition are Alise, a Bingtown scholar of dragons trapped in a loveless marriage who seizes the journey as escape and purpose; her husband's secretary Sedric, who hides his own agenda; and Leftrin, the gruff captain of the liveship barge Tarman. As keepers and dragons are paired, the proud, embittered dragon Sintara bonds reluctantly with Thymara. Set in Hobb's Realm of the Elderlings after the Liveship Traders, this opening volume establishes the slow, character-driven exodus that will define the series, framed by wry correspondence between two distant bird-keepers.