Oro displayed tremendous magical aptitude from the time he was an infant, but his mother taught him to hide his abilities because she feared her husband would exploit Oro’s gifts in his endless quest for more power. Some Sunlings possess a rare ability to transform organic and inorganic matter into gold. As a young child, Oro accidentally turns an attendant named Albert into a golden statue. The king proudly displays the man’s gilded remains, but he loses interest in Oro when the boy’s remorse stifles his magical power.

As an heir of Lightlark’s ruling family, Oro has access to Sunling, Moonling, Starling, and Skyling magic. After the gilding incident, Oro’s parents decide to begin his training in these four types of power early, and they send him to Sun Isle. His mother’s parting gift to him is the advice, “Find your fire” (345).

During a training exercise on Sun Isle, several of Oro’s classmates attack the prince. Oro’s best friend, Enya, defends him. As the friends flee, Enya reveals that one of the oracles on Moon Isle told her when she’s going to die and that this knowledge makes her braver.

Oro’s Sunling teachers grow frustrated that he isn’t making any progress with his magic, so they put him in a dark hole in the ground and tell him to light his way out. In the darkness, Oro has flashbacks of gilding Albert, and he decides not to use his powers again. Days later, the teachers retrieve the unconscious Oro from the hole and decide to send him home. Enya had been there when Oro gilded Albert, and she now urges him to master his power. With her encouragement, Oro unleashes his fire magic into the sea, but he remains afraid of his power.

The narrative moves a few years into the future. On the last day of Oro’s Sunling training, he and Enya visit his favorite place, a beach on Sun Isle with a beautiful view of the ocean. Although he wishes Enya could come with him when he leaves for Moon Isle, he’s filled with gratitude when she tells him that she will live for centuries.

During Oro’s first day of training on the frigid Moon Isle, he uses his fire magic to warm himself. Cleo, the younger sister of the Moonling ruler and one of his instructors, tells him that fire magic is forbidden and makes him spend the night outside in the snow as punishment. The next morning, Cleo douses Oro in freezing water. She offers all of her students one last chance to drop out, warning them, “You will either form a connection with the cold—or you will die” (286). Cleo sends the students into a frozen wilderness called the Vinderland and tells them that they’ll have to work with their partners to find food, water, and shelter. Oro believes he has little hope for survival, especially when he is partnered with Calder, whose father was “the head of the greatest resistance Lightlark has seen in centuries” (286). Oro’s father killed the rebel leader a few years ago.

Calder steers Oro away from a blizzard that kills many of their classmates, builds a wooden shelter, and hunts for food. Oro is mystified by these actions because he expects Calder to murder him to avenge his father. After Calder saves him from falling off a cliff, Oro feels “[e]ndless relief and gratitude” (298). This enables him to use his fire magic for the first time since he’s been out in the wilderness. When Oro asks Calder why he saved his life, the Moonling answers, “We are not defined by our lineage” (298).

The narrative moves forward in time. Oro completes his Moonling training and returns home. The king asks Oro to gild a thief who was captured in the castle’s treasury, and he has his son thrown into the dungeon when he refuses. During Oro’s imprisonment, a Skyling “self-proclaimed expert thief” named Zed brings him food, water, blankets, and messages from Enya in exchange for gems (302). With the Skyling’s help, Oro escapes from his cell.

The narrative moves years forward. At the end of the war between Lightlark and Nightshade, Oro, Egan, and their friends grieve at the Sunling king and queen’s funeral. To seal the peace treaty, Grim is detained in the Sunlings’ dungeon. Oro suspects that Grim and his father are plotting something. The enraged prince fills Grim’s cell with flames, threatening to incinerate him if he doesn’t give him information. Grim is unafraid and says that he surrendered because he was weary of death. Although Oro struggles to believe that the infamous “monster” could tire of bloodshed, his flair reveals that the Nightshade is telling the truth.

Oro tells Enya, Calder, and Zed that Grim isn’t trying to escape. He omits that he nearly killed Grim, ashamed that his moment of fury could have cost Lightlark their hard-won peace. Oro’s friends insist that he spend more time with Grim, as they believe Grim and Oro’s father are plotting something.

Oro returns to Grim’s cell when he hears that the Nightshade refuses to eat. Grim tells Oro that he never knew his mother because his father had her killed. He suggests that he and the prince are alike because they both hated their fathers, and he points out that both sides killed thousands in the war. Oro tries to remind himself that he and Grim are different people from their fathers, but he still hungers to “do anything [he] can to hurt him the way his family has hurt [Oro’s]” (315)

Oro sees that Egan is absorbed in his new duties as king to the detriment of his health because their father taught Egan to “put the island above all else” (318). During Oro’s next visit to the dungeon, Grim tells him about his flair and suggests that they’re similar because neither of them wants to rule a realm. Oro retorts that Grim’s disdain for love is a major difference between them.

When Oro returns to the dungeon, he sees that two guards have defied his orders and beaten the prisoner. Grim begins reciting the names of Nightshade soldiers Oro killed in the war, but the prince urges himself not to “feel empathy for [his] enemy” (326). Oro asks why Grim doesn’t try to escape. Grim answers that he prefers imprisonment because he’s away from his father and he doesn’t have to kill anyone. Next, Oro asks Grim whether he and his father plan to overtake Lightlark. Grim replies that they aren’t “right now.” Satisfied that he’s telling the truth, Oro leaves.

Because Oro learned that Grim doesn’t have any immediate schemes against Lightlark, he’s excused from visiting the prisoner. He goes out to a bar with his friends to celebrate. Calder reminds Oro that the two of them were “meant to be enemies” (329). He highlights several similarities between Oro and Grim, including their ages and restrictive roles. Oro is shocked to learn from local gossip that Egan is betrothed to Aurora, a woman who became the Starling ruler when her parents died in an explosion. He correctly infers that his brother views the union as a political alliance and reflects on his own disinterest in romance.