Four centuries after the Great Fracture, the Lower World is still stuck in the dark ages while the Upper World remains cut off ever since the Alchemists went extinct. Prudence dwells in the Lower World, an outcast because she sees the future in dreams. One night, she is kidnapped and pressganged into service aboard the Heliotrope, a flying pirate ship with a sinister reputation. The young orphan discovers a whole new world–the world of the skies–and crewmembers who have a big secret: a clue to a series of "keys" scattered throughout the world. Keys that unlock... the City of the Alchemists.