Jens Anders is ambitious, and reckless in his desire to make a name for himself by finding a wonder on the other side of the world and presenting it to the genius empress Celandine. He takes along his long-suffering childhood friend, Alun, and hires a mysterious translator, Aena, who has her own reasons for coming on the voyage.
Jens does find a wonder: a statue or artefact of unknown origin and powers, and brings it back. But something terrible and destructive follows it, under land and sea, half-way across a world that isn't ready for the implications of where it came from, to the one intellect who might be. But Celandine already has enough things to worry about.