Maria is struggling in Underfoot. A hooded figure haunts her dreams, her mind-reading abilities have grown so powerful that even her closest friends avoid her touch, she's seeing strange threads of light everywhere, and her parents are still nowhere to be found. Having been banned from returning to the surface for the time being, she anxiously awaits word from the search party that went looking for her parents and the other missing Vins.

During what was supposed to be a joyous occasion, an evil entity strikes, creating chaos in the underground settlement, and Wren is captured by the Wrathful, along with Eyota. In order to escape the mayhem and rescue their friends, Maria, Rusty, and Pan must journey up top, find allies, and fight the enemy. Along the way, Maria finds answers to her never-ending questions and discovers fate is far more powerful than she realized.