Everyone who dies prematurely is entitled to a second life, known as Eder. There are two exceptions: the very old and newborns. In these second lives, people have positive or negative experiences depending on how they originally died. They might be empowered or cursed, transformed or deformed. Adalise, daughter of the King of Cendreclat, capital of Galamore, was still-born and yet somehow came back to life, without any apparent ill effects. She is thus forever feared and hated by her people.