The Machine gives. The Machine protects. The Machine lies. A hundred years ago, the Great Machine rose from the sea and lumbered onto the English coastline. Now it's a part of daily life for the people of Wrotdam as they use the Ink dripping from its chassis to power their city, develop wondrous inventions, and protect themselves from the sludge-like Mire that mindlessly seeks to infect them. On the eve of the Machine's centennial, a young woman comes to Wrotdam claiming the Mire is becoming intelligent and seeks to feed her village of Dawnhallow to an apparatus of grinding teeth and black smoke. Shunned and belittled, she finds help with the most unlikely sorts. A cleric, a sawbones, a thief, a magician, a leech, a cursed, and a fallen. These seven outcasts have their own reasons for trying to save Dawnhallow, whether that be a search for answers, salvation, or power. The Church refuses them, the village doubts them, and through bickering, battling, and falling in love, they discover the Mire isn't their only threat. Armed with fantastic weaponry and abilities, they just might survive the fight - if they don't kill each other first.