Six months after the Emperor’s murder, an unidentified person lives under curfew in a hot, militarized city. The evening hour is a brief relief from the oppressive afternoon, when blackout cloths cover the windows and the household keeps the room sealed against scrutiny.

The unidentified person lives with three caretakers: someone who works for her, someone who teaches her, and Camilla, who looks after her. The teacher gives her bones to arrange or hold, apparently testing what feels instinctive. Later, when the heat drops, she exercises at a chin-up bar, does press-ups, or is given a sword, again to see what feels natural.

At night, Camilla takes her down thirty flights of stairs through a crowded, fearful building to buy fried food at a corner store. A previous food stall was abandoned after the woman ate scalding fried food without apparent injury, alarming Camilla or the household because the lack of pain revealed something unusual about her body.

The city around them is tense and dangerous. Soldiers patrol with guns and riot shields, curfews slow traffic, and gunfights sometimes force the household to close the windows and lie on the bathroom floor for safety.

During these nights, the unidentified person studies Camilla’s face and feels a deep, familiar affection for her, especially for her grey eyes. The person repeatedly asks whether Camilla has worked out who she is, but Camilla can only answer that she has not yet discovered the truth.