The novel opens with a young girl names Kira waking up and realizing that her mother, Katrina, is dead. Kira never had to experience a death in her family so she thinks about the rituals other families perform when they lose a loved one. The dead person of the dying person is usually taken to a place called the Field of the Living where the family watches over the body for a period of four days until the soul leaves the body.
Kira considers how she will survive from now on since she has no relatives and no home, because the other villagers burnt the house she shared with her mother. Kira thinks that she will build a new home for herself but know that it will be difficult to do it since she has a lame leg. Kira also thinks about her uncle who lost his wife during childbirth and who had two small children of his own to take care of. Kira thinks that maybe her uncle will let her live with them if she were to take care of his children but then remembers that families usually sell their healthy children to wealthier families.
Kira was born fatherless and her mother was advised to let the young girl die since she had a twisted leg. Katrina refused to let the baby die because she argued that she won’t be able to conceive another child since Kira’s father was killed by beasts. Katrina used her influence and her father’s influence who was the chief in the village and the baby was allowed to live.
Kira grew up to be an intelligent young girl, a skilled weaver and storyteller but she was still looked down upon by the other people in the village who saw her as being useless. As Kira leaves the Field, she sees one of her friends named Matt and Kira asks him to help her father materials to build her new house. Matt refuses however but before leaving he tells Kira that the women in the village think about sending Kira to the Field to die as well so they would be able to claim the lot where Katrina’s house used to be.
Kira returns to the place her mother’s home used to be but she finds nothing but ashes. All that is left is a vegetable garden Kira and her mother used to take care of. A woman came in and stole some of the vegetables left in the garden and Kira is unable to stop her.
Vandara comes out of nowhere while Kira is busy gathering twigs and tells her that the plot where Kira and her mother used to live no longer belongs to her. Kira tries to argue that the place was her mother’s and her grandfather’s when they were alive so it is only natural that Kira should have it. More women come out of the woods with rocks in their hands, ready to kill Kira but she saves herself by mentioning what will happen to them if they chose to kill her. Vandare and the other women leave but not before telling Kira that she will be taken the next day before the Council that will determine what will happen to her and her property. The women are certain Kira will be sent to be killed by the beast so they return to their cots. After Vandara left, Kira thinks that the elders will let her live if she proves herself useful and if they knew how skilled she is as a weaver.
The next day, Kira is summoned by the elders of the village to the most imposing building in the village. Some information are offered about the society in which Kira lives and it is mentioned that an apocalyptic event destroyed humanity almost entirely and all that was left were a few buildings that managed to survive.
Vandara is the first one to speak before the elders and she lists all the reasons why she thinks Kira should be driven out of the village. The Elders offer Kira the possibility to protect herself or to let one of the Elders talk for her and Kira decides in the end to let one of the Elders to talk in her place.
The man chose to talk for Kira is named Jamison and he brings a counter argument for every bad aspect Vandara mentioned about Kira. After Jamison talked in Kira’s favor, the two women are asked to step outside and Kira sees Matt waiting for her. Matt tells her that he and other children gathered twigs and wood for her to build a new house before hinting that maybe the Council is not to be trusted.
Kira is asked to go back inside and she is told that she can stay in the village and that she must continue her mother’s work, namely to continue and mend the singer’s robe. Kira will live inside the Edifice while Vandara will receive Kira’s plot of land. Vandara however is not happy with the results and storms angrily out of the room.
Kira meets with Matt outside and he offers to go and get what things she has left. Kira also goes to her old house to say goodbye before going back to the Edifice.
Matt is let to go inside with Kira to help with her things and Kira is amazed when she sees her new room. But despite not having to sleep in dire conditions and having better food, Kira thinks with sadness about her mother and notes that she never felt more alone than then.
The next day, Kira wakes up unsure about how to use the toilet in her quarters or how to use the bathtub. She meets another boy living in the Edifice, Thomas the Carver, who was asked to move there after his parents died. Thomas had a talent for carving and was asked to carve ornamental pieces for the wealthy. Thomas tells Kira that they are free to come and go as they please as long as they will perform the duties they were given.
After lunch, Jamison comes in with the robe and gives it to Kira. He tells her that she must work on a patch of the robe that represents the future of the village. Jamison stresses the importance of Kira’s work by telling her that the future depends on her work.
Jamison gives Kira supplies to mend to robe but Kira notices that the thread is not dyed and that Kira must learn how to do it. Jamison assures her that Annabella will show her how to do it and Kira promises to go to her the next day.
The next day, Kira goes to Annabella with Matt and Annabella agrees to teach her everything she knows about dying the threads used in the weaving process and the plants and substances used to change the natural color of a thread.
At the end of the day, Annabella gives Kira threads dyed in different colors but Kira notices that the color blue is missing. Annabella tells Kira that the process of producing the color blue is more complicated and tells her than the ‘’yonder’’ people have the plant that produce the color blue.
That night, Kira talks with Thomas who offers to write down the name of the plants for her to make it easier for her to learn them. Kira also goes to her mother’s old garden and takes from there some plants she needs. Kira asks Jamison to bring her pots and to provide her with a plot of land to grow plants and she is surprised when he agrees and tells her that he will provide her with what he needs.
Kira develops something akin to a friendship with Thomas and she also begins to work on the Singer’s robe while Thomas worked on the Singer’s staff.
One afternoon, Kira sees from Thomas’s window a party of hunters getting ready to leave and she spots Matt among the children chosen to go. Scared, Kira asks Thomas to help her get Matt out of that situation and he agrees after Kira tells him that Matt is her friend. Kira and Thomas manage to get Matt inside the Edifice and they keep him there until the party of men leave to hunt and Matt is left behind.
Kira continues to spend her days with Annabella and during one of those days, Annabella tells Kira that the beasts she is so afraid of do not exist. Kira continue to think about her mentor’s words and she thinks that they might be right since no one saw any of the beasts the villagers are afraid of. After that conversation, Kira asks herself what happened to her father who was presumably killed by the beasts.
Kira continues working on the robe until one day Matt shows up at the Edifice after his mother threw him out. Thomas is also worried because he keeps on hearing a child cry somewhere and Kira agrees to help him investigate. Matt is let inside and the three go around the Edifice investigating the source of the noise.
The three find downstairs Jamison with a small child. The small child is identified as being Jo by Matt and Jamison is yelling at Jo while the child tried to sing. Matt mentions that Jo was always talented and that she was taken to the Edifice after both her parents died suddenly. From that point on, Kira became less inclined to trust Jamison and thinks how both she and Thomas lost their parents in similar conditions. Kira asks Jamison about the beasts and he tells her that the bests do exist.
A few days later, Kira finds that Annabella was taken to the Field by Jamison. Kira returns to the Edifice but she tries to find Jo first before returning to her room where she is waited by Jamison who tells her that Annabella has died.
Kira tries to speak with Thomas about Jo but he doesn’t see her situation as being unusual and mentions to Kira that he was treated the same when he was first brought to the Edifice. While Thomas warns Kira to stay away from Jo, he gives her a key he carved that can open any door in the Edifice and even offers to go with her that night to visit Jo.
When the night came, Kira and Thomas went to Jo’s room and assured her that they are her friends and that she can count on them if she ever feels in danger. When Kira returns to her room, she feels alone and discouraged to realize that she no longer can work on projects chosen by her but that she must do what she is told by the Elders.
Two days pass and Kira is worried that something happened to Matt so she convinces Thomas to go with her in the village and to the Fen to look for him. When they reach the Fen, they are encountered with a foul smell and with the sight of dirty and crying children. A woman tells them where they can find Matt after Thomas gives her an apple so Kira and Thomas head towards the house pointed by the woman. There, Kira finds that Matt ran away after his mother beat him and that he went to search for a present for Kira.
Days pass and the Gathering festival approaches but Matt is still missing. Jamison visits Kira frequently to inspect her work and tells her that he is pleased with her progress.
The Gathering day arrives and Thomas and Kira are asked to sit on chairs near the Elders, signaling that they are worth of praise. Jo is also brought in and seated before the Singer is brought in and put to sing the Ruin Song. The ceremony lasts hours and Jo even falls asleep. Kira sees Matt crawling among the people assembled for the ceremony and is relieved to see him alive.
During lunch break, Matt gives Kira a piece of cloth dyed blue and tells her that he has another present for her. When Kira returns to her room at the end of the Gathering, a bling man waits for her there. His shirt was blue and it was missing a patch from it and he confesses that the blue cloth she was holding in her hand was from his shirt. The man introduces himself as Christopher, her father before he begins to cry.
Christopher tells Kira that he was attacked during a hunting trip by one of the men he was with. He was then taken to the field and left to die there but during the night stranger came and took him with them and nursed him back to health. He was left blind after the attack and the people from the new village could do nothing for him. The village was populated by wounded and deformed people but then after a while they produced healthy offspring so the new society was thriving.
Christopher lost his memories after the attack and when he started to remember who he was, he was too scared to return to the village because he feared that he will be killed. Christopher tells Kira that the one who tried to kill him was Jamison and that they should all leave the village the next day for their own safety.
Kira thinks about the future of her village and how the Elders manipulated the others and she decides to remain in the village for a while longer. While Christopher is sad to hear this, he accepts Kira’s decision and the novel ends with Christopher giving Kira blue thread as a parting gift.
