""I wish I could say this is a story of how I saved everyone and set the world to right. But it isn't. This is a story of my failure.""
Laika Roen has always been strangely attracted to Lisan, a mysterious and isolated country where the citizens worship their despotic leader. When Laika is invited to travel to Lisan as a visiting scholar, she jumps at the chance to experience Lisan's unusual culture firsthand.
But Laika gets more than she bargained for when her trip is disrupted by violence and she's forced to set out on her own. As she journeys through forbidden sections of the foreign country, Laika discovers horrible truths about the relationship between Lisan's leader and his people.
Can a simple scholar change the course of an entire country? And even if she can, "should" she? The distinction between right and wrong blurs as Laika explores not only Lisan, but her own conscience.