Emme is the midwife for the Roanoak Colony. Circumstances threaten their survival, but Emme has met a European man calling himself Tighe in the forest where no European man should be.

Tighe has problems of his own. His people fled across the sea to escape mortal men and their iron weapons, but now they are dying out. Stealing children is not an option, but Tighe hopes if Emme and some of the other from the failing colony will agree to come live with his people they will interbreed. However his mother is opposed to bringing mortals into Faerie and threatens to close the border sealing the Fae in and sealing their doom. At the same time, he has lost Emme’s trust and does not know how to regain it. His efforts to protect her with Fae magic have also cast a suspicion of witchcraft on her from the expedition.