By the time the colonists landed on the planet with two suns, they had already divided into the rulers and the ruled. When the new world failed to provide sufficient food, this division erupted into civil war. Some people fled to the desert, others stayed on the coast and built a city from the hulks of the starships.Having learned from her mother how to make native plants edible and how to train the great flying beasts called yaegers, Espera, the desert girl, takes on a quest from her father and goes to the city on a quest.