On the planet Kelanni, the intelligent inhabitants, who have tails and white blood, are ruled by a malevolent leader known as the Prophet.
After crossing through the Great Barrier, a wall of wind on the ocean, Shann awakens on the beach in a strange land. The sky is dark in filled with tiny pinpoints of light. The only one of her companions that made it through with her is Boxx, a Chandara. Boxx informs Shann that the points of lights are stars. As they travel away from the beach on the cold night, small, white flakes begin to fall from the sky. Shann wonders at the differences between her land on the other side of the Barrier and this land of cold and darkness.
Shann and Boxx run across a town, Kieroth, and she is captured after spending the night in a car. She is taken to a man named Hannath and she tells him her story about crossing the Barrier on a ship. He does not believe her as there are no ships in that part of the world. She soon meets Rael, a boy about her age who works for Hannath and is training to be a scientist. Boxx who has also been captured is interrogated by Hannath, but Hannath is confused by the way Boxx speaks in riddles and learns nothing from it.
Rael take Shann out to the launch site, a place where a rocket ship is being build. Shann realizes that she could use this ship to return to her side of the world, if she could somehow figure out how to fly it. Shann soon tells Rael about the Prophet and his plan to kill all of their people. She convinces Rael to help her escape and they flee westward in a stolen flying machine with Boxx.
Sixteen days ago, Lyall, Alondo, Karis and Patris beached the ship they used to travel across the sea. Patris leaves the group to explore the land on his own while the others make their way to Kieroth, searching for Shann and Boxx. Keris soon leaves on her own journey and heads west looking for the solution to defeating the Prophet.
Alexander Edward McCann, a human that has been trapped on the planet for sixteen years, is a spy. He works for the man known as the Phophet, who is also a human, and has a ship that is disguised to look like on of the Kalanni flying machines. McCann has run across the Patris' beached ship and tries to kill Lyall, Alondo, and Karis using his lasers on his flying machine. He is determined to stop these three that have crossed over the Barrier and who are trying to prevent the plans of the Prophet. The Prophet believes that all of the Kelanni must be killed so humans can have this planet and mine all of the Lodestone without interference.
Will Lyall, Alondo, Karis, Shann, Boxx and Rael be able to thwart the evil plant of the humans that have landed on their planet? Or will the humans outsmart the native intelligent inhabitants of Kelanni and kill every last one of them just so they can mine all of the Lodestone for a profit? Not if Shann and her friends have anything to say about it.