Kiela has always had trouble dealing with people. Thankfully, as librarian at the Great Library of Alyssium, she hasn't had to. She has spent the last eleven years sequestered among the empire's spellbooks, preserving their magic for the city's elite. But when a revolution begins and the library goes up in flames, she saves as many books as she can carry and flees to a faraway island Kiela was sure she'd never return to: her childhood home. As Kiela comes to make a place for herself among the kind and quirky townspeople of her former home, she realizes that in order to make a life for herself, she must learn to break down the walls she has built up so high.