Dick Richards finds himself stranded—not just on a dead-magic world—but a dying one. An endless wind scours the plains under a bleak, gray sky; the survivors of a centuries-old calamity eke a living in the husks of hollow cities; and an offbeat religion offers the tantalizing hint of a new source of power.

As the spells which keep him alive fade, Dick questions whether to compromise the values he has left in order to survive.