Mavin is a child, living in Danderbat Keep, one of the Shifter holds. She and her sister Handbright are the only females there who are still young, amongst all the men. Mavin drifts through life largely innocent, waiting to see if she will develop a shifter talent, but when she does, she feels strangely reluctant to tell the Elders. She convinces Handbright to wait just a little while before telling anyone.
During the festival, she overhears some of the Elders talking and learns why they are so eager for her to come into her talent, to come of age, and she realises what Handbright has been suffering at their hands. Women are supposed to stay in Danderbat until they have borne children, but Handbright has never had any. Mavin begins to plan after meeting her Thalan, Plandybast, at the festival. Brother to Mavin's mother, he offers her and her younger brother Mertyn a place in his keep if they can make it there.
Mavin begins to practice shifting, secretly, and quickly becomes adept. Most Shifters don't learn quickly, don't practice often enough, but Mavin does. When Handbright finally tells the Elders about Mavin, she is ready. She convinces Handbright to flee, to fly away in the shape of a bird. Everyone knows that Shifters can't shift into the shape of another person, but Mavin does, she becomes Handbright until that night.
When she leaves the keep, she takes Mertyn and disguises herself as a man, an older brother to Mertyn. Together they decide they will make up a story, that Mavin is the servant of a Wizard, Himaggery, and that Mertyn is his Thalan, because people don't usually bother Wizards. As they travel, Mavin discovers that Mertyn has come into his talent early, and he has beguilement. He had beguiled Handbright to stay at Danderbat Keep when she would have left.
Soon they join a party of travellers for safety, led by the Seer Windlow. He is to found a teaching school, and some of his students are already with him, including the Wizard Fon, and the sons of King Prionde, Valdon and Boldery. They are going to Pfarb Durim to meet with some more potential students, but they avoid the road leading down to Hell's Maw, known as Poffle, where Bourblast the Ghoul rules.
Upon reaching Pfarb Durim, they part company with the travellers, but soon run into problems. Mertyn becomes very ill and Mavin discovers that the city has come under siege. It is known that the plague is rampant in Pfarb Durim and no one is allowed out until it is cured. The Healers have all left the city, and there is nothing they can do for it anyway, it is the ghoul-plague.
Mavin quickly seeks out Windlow, but is caught in the hotel corridors, and almost interrogated by a young Demon, until the Fon arrives and claims that he himself is the Wizard Himaggery and Mavin is his servant. Mavin quickly outlines the problem to Windlow, who has Mertyn brought to the hotel, and explains that there is a legend that the Shadow People can cure the ghoul plague. Mavin determines to leave the city and seek help from them. She is going to leave via the same tunnels that young Demon used, even though they go through Hell's Maw, the Demon being the son Bourblast. Himaggery learns that Mavin is really a girl, and offers to help if she signals him.
While in the tunnels, Mavin comes across a small furry creature, calling itself Proom. It guides her to a room of cages, where more of his kind are trapped, and frees them. After emerging outside the city she suddenly realises that the furry creatures are the shadow people, and that they may help her. Proom wakes up a creature sleeping in a tree, known as the Agirul, to translate their conversation. First they had to make a song about Mavin, then they listened to her story about Mertyn.
Proom is very upset, he had custody of an artifact, known as Ganver's Bone, which would cure the plague, but Bourblast has taken it away. Mavin signals to Himaggery to come and thinks about a plan. When Himaggery appears, they deicde that they need the help of more Shifters and Mavin runs quickly to her Thalan's Keep. But when she arrives, they want to talk, to discuss, and Plandybast's sister insists that Mavin is untrustworthy, and convinces them to not help her.
Exasperated, she begins the journey back, only to find that there is another Agirul is the trees nearby, who wants her to go to Ganver's Grave, a site where the Eesties, giant roling stars that were the inhabitants before man arrived, had been seen.
Mavin enters the area and finds Ganver, the one who gave Proom the Bone to cure plague, the one who interfered, and makes her case, but she isn't sure if she's had any more luck than before.
She arrives back at Pfarb Durim to find that the plan is progressing. They know Bourblast has the plague, and are luring him out by promising him a cure. When the cure is wrought, it is a sound, and all within hearing are cured. Bourblast is killed by his son, the Demon Huld, because Huld wanted all in Pfarb Durim to die so he could take it for himself.
Afterward, Mavin and Himaggery join Windlow and the other back at the hotel. Windlow agrees to take Mertyn as a student, because Mavin no longer wishes him to live with Shifters. Himaggery wants her to come too, but she wants to find her sister Handbright. They agree that if they haven't met before then, they will meet in twenty years time at the same hotel.
Mavin leaves and Himaggery does not tell her that Windlow has had a vision, that it will be twenty years before they meet again.