Effie Widdershins is the new Tallyster of Covilha-a seemingly meaningless vocation in which she has one single task: to scratch a notch on her cottage wall whenever anybody crosses the town line. It's an odd vocation, but Effie, who saves every coin she makes to pay for her sister's release, would have taken on much worse. Even when she misses a notch on the wall and is threatened by the Council with a mysterious punishment, Effie would do anything to prove herself worthy of the job and the handsome coin it provides. But when she is visited by her sister's beloved, Jeera, who has discovered that no visitor ever escapes-and that Effie has been surreptitiously aiding in this evil plot-Effie has no choice but to flee with him that very night...with or without the coins to pay off her sister's debt. Effie and Jeera don't get far before the town descends upon them and swallows Effie up into its underbelly (literally). When Effie has been sufficiently sacrificed to the town's local deity, affectionally called "Mother," she is released back into the wild as another being. The only part of her old life that has stayed with her is her magenta-coloured hair and the guilt of her sister's wrongful confinement. Even in her new life, she must make things right with her sister and with her people. Even if it kills her.