The second summer that Etta and Cru have been away from the Valley is just beginning. It is time for them the start the journey home. Etta is confident they can get home once they get across the Steppes because Deet had drawn a map with all the villages on it. They need only ask directions in each village to reach the next on. But their troubles begin before they have made it across the Steppes. Someone has altered one of the marker stones. After being lost for several days they manage to find their way and reach the other side. In the first village they come to they discover the pass across the mountains and the river trail have both been blocked by landslides. Their only option is to try to go by way of a trail an old man in the village remembers his grandfather telling him about when he was young. Etta and Cru start out on the long way home.