On the day Prescinda leaves the fishing village of Grayden, and her marriage to a man she's never loved, her return to the old family home of Blisteraising Farm is interrupted. A surprise visit by Nephril brings with it a strange request that he seems reluctant to explain. "I know thou hath heard talk of a distant city," was how he broached it, which seemed more benign than his last request that she 'scare someone almost to death'. This time she was asked to help Falmeard spy out a rare sight, but one which could very well foretell the end of the realm of Dica, and thereby of existence itself. There begins a most strange journey that turns into a race to a discovery that should never have been possible. What finally comes to light places Dica and its people in their true perspective, and reveals an enemy within, an enemy they must defeat. But even if Prescinda and her friends succeed, has Dica already been taken too far awry for the damage to be undone? Can they find a way to bring the realm back onto the path to a safe new future, and so keep true to the artist's eye?