Centuries after our civilization’s demise, the resurrected three realms, Ainaa, Merca, and Beria, still suffer from the dreadful aftermath of a global war. Only small fractions of the land, known as “corridors,” are habitable. The rest, now reclaimed by nature and referred to as “No-Go Land,” is mined by the deadly shatter mines of the “gravitists,” one of the appalling human breeds of the “Sunken Realm.”

With too little land and too many people, Merca, the planet’s breadbasket, is hard-pressed by its superior rivals. But then the discovery of a lost subcontinent reshuffles the pack.

In this time of change, Twotwowan, an inmate of a Berian detention camp, and Zarca, a girl on the run from her mighty brother, cross paths on a journey aboard the world’s largest sky freighter, the Tower of Ore. Twotwowan and his adolescent camp mates are pressed into service as “dragon boys,” responsible for feeding the giant flying lizards that drag the Tower towards Merca. 

Meanwhile, Zarca escapes from her brother’s henchmen, disguised as a maid in the ship’s kitchen. Yet her persecutors are powerful and await her at the freighter’s destination. But they haven’t reckoned with the dragon boys, the mysterious young mechanic Seelus, or the young Twotwowan, who is about to discover frightful powers within himself.