On a string of orbitals called the Scattered Pearls Belt lives Sunless Woods--sentient spaceship, master of disguise, and master thief who chafes against the obscurity that comes with her retirement. There, too, lives Vân, a poor scholar with little confidence but plenty of heart, and whose income comes from tutoring a wealthy student. Their lives are turned upside down when Vân finds a corpse in her student's quarters and Sunless Woods, intrigued by Vân's sense of justice, offers her help. Scholar and spaceship must chase the mystery around the empire's forgotten edge: from rundown teahouses to ascetic havens, and even in the wreck of a spaceship--and all the while, they begin to fall for each other in earnest. But the secrets they've kept from each other are large and devastating--will they and their love survive the revelations?.