Brother Edik discovers a feverish girl sleeping beside the goat Answelica in the monastery stable.

Beatryce wakes in the monastery with no memory of her past, knowing only her name.

Brother Edik shaves Beatryce's head and dresses her as a monk to conceal her dangerous ability to read.

The monks agree to keep Beatryce hidden among them after Answelica terrorizes each of them into compliance.

Jack Dory arrives at the monastery seeking a monk to record a dying soldier's final confession.

The monks give Beatryce supplies and send her away with Jack to take the soldier's confession.

The dying soldier confesses to killing three children, triggering Beatryce's buried memories and sending her into a daze.

Jack retrieves the soldier's sword from under the bed and the three flee the inn together.

Beatryce and Jack climb a tree in the dark woods and encounter a singing hermit named Cannoc.

Beatryce dreams of the attack that killed her brothers and wakes with her full memories restored.

Beatryce announces she will find her mother and force the king to answer for his crimes.

Beatryce sneaks away from the group in the night to confront the king alone and is captured by a soldier.

The king enters Beatryce's dungeon cell, and she tells him the mermaid's story instead of confronting him.

Answelica breaks open Beatryce's cell door and her friends rush into the dungeon to free her.

Cannoc briefly reclaims the throne to exile the false king, then crowns Beatryce's mother as queen.

Beatryce is found near death in a monastery stable, nursed back to health by Brother Edik, and disguised as a boy to hide her dangerous ability to read. When a boy named Jack arrives seeking help for a dying soldier, Beatryce volunteers and learns the soldier killed her brothers and tried to kill her, unlocking buried memories. She flees into the dark woods with Jack and a goat named Answelica, meets a hermit named Cannoc, and recovers her full identity as Beatryce of Abelard—a girl prophecy says will unseat a king. Resolving to confront the king, Beatryce slips away alone in the night and is captured, ending up in the castle dungeon. Her friends storm the castle to rescue her while she holds the king at bay with a story about a mermaid. Together the group frees Beatryce's captive mother and installs her as queen, beginning an age in which everyone will learn to read.

The core quest to rescue Beatryce's mother and unseat the false king.

Answelica's eyes show surprising gentleness as she urges Edik to carry the unconscious Beatryce to the monastery quickly.

Beatryce consciously gives her painful memories to the fever, choosing to forget them in order to survive.

Edik suspects Beatryce can read after she casually mentions she wouldn't want to read the sorrowful chronicles.

Beatryce invents a joyful story on the spot, moving Edik deeply and reminding him of his mother's mermaid hairbrush.

The king's counselor reads a prophecy about a girl unseating a king and smiles with evil satisfaction.

Beatryce reveals she is a girl to Jack, and Answelica headbutts him hard enough for him to see stars.

Beatryce and Edik share a tearful farewell before she leaves the monastery with Jack and Answelica.

A king's soldier asks Jack about a strange girl in the village, and Jack vows never to sit idly by again.

Soldiers arrive at the monastery and interrogate Edik about Beatryce's whereabouts.

Edik sets out alone into the dark woods to find Beatryce, refusing to give up on her.

Cannoc leads the group to his home inside a hollow tree and explains what kings truly want.

Edik wanders lost in the dark woods and is confronted by a knife-wielding man.

Cannoc arrives laughing in the dark woods and rescues Edik from the man with the knife.

Jack confronts the robber who killed his parents but chooses to spare the man's life.

Beatryce, Jack, and Answelica stand on a cliff overlooking the sea, resolved to travel the land and teach everyone to read.

While Beatryce recovers from her fever, Answelica reveals a surprising gentleness, Beatryce chooses to forget her past, and Edik slowly realizes she can read. The king's counselor begins scheming after reading a prophecy, while Beatryce bonds with Jack and shares a tearful farewell with Edik before leaving the monastery. Jack vows to protect Beatryce after a soldier comes searching for her, and the group eventually finds shelter in Cannoc's tree home deep in the dark woods. Back at the monastery, soldiers interrogate Edik, who bravely sets off alone to find Beatryce and faces a knife-wielding stranger before being rescued by Cannoc. As the group races to save Beatryce, Jack finally confronts the robber who killed his parents and chooses mercy over revenge. The story closes with Beatryce, Jack, and Answelica standing on a cliff overlooking the sea, ready to carry the gift of reading to everyone in the land.

The journeys of Edik, Jack, and the supporting cast across the full story.

Beatryce wakes from her fever and reaches for Answelica's ear, finding it the one thing she can hold on to.

The king fears he misunderstood the prophecy and orders his soldiers to bring Beatryce alive for questioning.

Edik shows Beatryce the letter B written in glowing script, and she immediately identifies it, confirming she can read.

Walking toward the village, Beatryce senses she has somehow met Jack before and decides she trusts him.

Beatryce enters the dying soldier's room at the inn and immediately senses the heavy presence of death.

Overwhelmed by the soldier's confession, Beatryce writes the mermaid story's first line over and over instead of his words.

Beatryce decides to trust Cannoc because she liked his song about Answelica and the way he laughed.

Beatryce dreams of soldiers bursting into her home and recognizes the dying confessor as her family's attacker.

Beatryce sobs until nearly drowning in tears and then remembers she is Beatryce of Abelard, hunted by the king.

The counselor visits Beatryce's imprisoned mother and boasts about how he twisted the prophecies for personal revenge.

Beatryce teaches Jack the alphabet inside Cannoc's tree home, and each new letter feels like a door opening inside him.

Alone in the dark dungeon, Beatryce discovers she can compose the full mermaid story without light or writing tools.

The counselor reveals himself to Beatryce as her first tutor, the man her mother dismissed for declaring his love.

Edik wildly announces a dire prophecy at the castle gates, tricking the terrified guards into lowering the drawbridge.

Beatryce throws herself into her freed mother's arms and declares that this is how the mermaid story ends.

Beatryce's recovery begins the moment she wakes and clings to Answelica's ear for survival, while the king's fear of a prophecy sets the forces against her in motion. Edik confirms Beatryce can read, Jack earns her trust on their first walk together, and Beatryce's visit to the dying soldier's room begins to crack open her buried past. In the dark woods with Cannoc, Beatryce's memories fully resurface—she relives the attack, weeps until she nearly drowns in her own tears, and reclaims her true name. The counselor's visit to her imprisoned mother lays bare his scheme to twist prophecies for revenge, and he later confronts Beatryce in the dungeon to reveal himself as the tutor her mother once dismissed. Separated from all she trusts, Beatryce discovers she can hold the darkness at bay by composing the entire mermaid story in her mind—a sign of true inner strength. When her friends finally break her free and she falls into her mother's arms, Beatryce ends the mermaid story the only way it could end: with a reunion.

The revelations, emotional turning points, and hidden truths that shape the story.