An unconscious girl found on a clump of floating kelp radically complicates Bernardo's life. By all accounts, Ondas is supposed to be uninhabited. Why is the League government hiding the existence of the seafarers? In his quest for answers, the young biologist becomes entangled in a broader conflict that is about to take a recently colonized world to war. Bernardo is swept into a secret world of rebellion and espionage, and uncovers a genocidal policy by his government directed against the child's aboriginal culture. On this water world fraught with ubiquitous storms, Bernardo, a few of his colleagues, two enslaved technicians, and an enigmatic mystic fight for the girl's survival and that of her people, discovering a long-forgotten truth that will shake the foundations of worlds.