Alexa knows that the news she is bringing to her mother will be unwelcome. Worse, she has to travel to the New World to deliver it, taking her an ocean away from her human lover.
But to her surprise, her mother exchanges Alexa's secret for one of her own. Juliette's story takes them back in her memory to the high-society culture of Feldon, before clockwork arts and airships.
As the story draws on, Alexa begins to understand her mother's strange seclusion, and to know that the ending can only be tragic.