At the end of Afterstorm, Liff wakes in her family farmhouse and sees her dead grandfather, Heorest Holt, standing near the treeline. Holt silently salutes her and disappears into the woods. Liff sneaks outside but cannot make herself enter the dark trees, while remembering Landfall's contradictory stories about Holt: founder, leader, dangerous bargainer, possible cause of war with the Seccers, and the only person said to speak with the Witch in the hills.

The next morning, Liff tells her family what she saw, but Liff's mother and father insist Holt is dead and that Liff must have dreamed it. At winter school, Liff repeats the claim and is mocked until Yotta says she once saw the Witch speaking with her woodcutter father near a trail leading to a cave. Convinced Holt may have gone to the Witch, Liff prepares an expedition with food, water, a knife, a torch, and her storybook, Wonders of Earth, whose tales shape Liff's ideas about witches, bargains, and clever children.

Liff enters the woods, finds what seems to be the trail, and thinks about Imir's thin, artificial ecosystem, the struggling trees, the beetles, the pigs, and old fears of Seccers. The path vanishes, and Liff realizes she is lost. Liff marks a tree, tries uphill and downhill routes, and eventually returns to the same rock and arrow mark as evening falls, forcing her to shout for help.

Two strange, sharp-featured figures named Gothi and Gethli appear beside Liff. Gothi says Liff is not supposed to be there and calls her new; Gethli asks whether they can eat Liff. After Liff explains she is looking for her grandfather and has lost the path, the path becomes visible again. Liff retreats along it toward home, then looks back and sees the pair gone, replaced by two black winged shapes rising into the sky.

Liff is punished after returning safely, but life continues. At school, Liff grows attached to Miranda, a young outsider teacher who teaches history with unusual energy and details that make adults uneasy. Liff follows Miranda and sees her with Mr Fabian, an outsider fixer whose uncanny skill with old machinery also attracts suspicion, and later notices Miranda at Midwinter Remembrance with Fabian and his formidable sister. During Remembrance, Councillor Arkelly recites solemn old words about a pledge and memory, while Liff senses that the adults know a hidden, painful meaning they refuse to explain.

After Remembrance, Liff has her recurring dream of an empty, decaying Landfall where everyone is gone and she alone remains alive; this time, she remembers two dark winged dots in the sky. Miranda then teaches science, explaining Imir's fragile imported ecosystem and stating that birds were never brought to the planet. When Liff asks about the birds she saw in the woods, Miranda starts to deny the possibility, but Liff points upward and both see two specks circling over Landfall. Miranda can only swear and refuses to explain further.