Merowdis and Ysolde ride together in a carriage with Pretty, Amandier, and Apple toward the edge of the woods.

Ysolde stops the carriage at the wood-gate and drives away after Merowdis and the animals get out.

Merowdis drops the bonnet in the snow and leads her companions into the winter wood.

Merowdis sits with her companions and reveals she cannot become a nun and refuses to marry George Blachland.

A blackbird and a fox emerge and watch Merowdis and her companions from the edge of the trees.

Merowdis announces she wants a child and explains the meaning of Christmas to the confused wood.

The wood argues that humans should have babies in spring; the fox agrees.

The wood reveals it can see all of time and announces that it sees a woman walking.

The wood shows Merowdis a vision of a tired woman with wild, loose hair.

Merowdis looks closer at the vision and realizes the woman carrying a bear cub is herself.

Apple declares that the bear cub will kill Merowdis, explaining that saints do shocking things.

The fox declares that Merowdis now belongs to the wood and retreats back into the forest.

Ysolde returns to the wood-gate and discovers Merowdis's bonnet lying in the snow.

Merowdis emerges from the woods and tells Ysolde she has been promised a child.

Merowdis disappears permanently into the wood, leaving Ysolde behind, and a church painting later depicts her holding a bear cub.

Merowdis and her sister Ysolde travel by carriage with their animals toward the edge of a winter wood, where Ysolde drops Merowdis off and drives away. Merowdis sheds the bonnet Ysolde pressed on her and enters the wood with her companions, where she admits she cannot become a nun and refuses to marry George Blachland. A blackbird and fox appear to observe her, and Merowdis falls into a conversation with the wood about her desire for a child and the meaning of Christmas. The wood reveals it can see all of time, then shows Merowdis a vision of herself carrying a bear cub—a creature that Apple plainly says will kill her. After the fox declares Merowdis now belongs to the wood and retreats into the trees, Ysolde returns to find only the discarded bonnet. Merowdis emerges long enough to tell Ysolde she has been promised a child, then vanishes into the wood forever, her memory preserved in a church painting showing her holding the bear cub.

The core journey from carriage ride to prophecy and Merowdis's final disappearance into the wood.

Merowdis tells Ysolde their father joked she named the pig Apple because apples pair well with pork.

Ysolde tells Apple not to listen to the pork joke, but Apple does not seem bothered at all.

Ysolde defends their father to Merowdis by saying that saints are difficult people to live with.

Merowdis says it is nice to be alone; each animal companion assumes she means alone with them specifically.

Amandier worries aloud about bears and wolves in the woods; Apple calmly replies that she likes wolves.

The dogs explore the forest while Apple searches the ground for food.

Merowdis walks through the winter wood for an hour before sitting down to rest with her companions.

Merowdis's companions urge her not to think sad thoughts while inside the wood.

Pretty pretends he cannot understand the fox's words and warns Amandier not to listen to it.

Merowdis says the wood is quiet in winter not because it sleeps but because it is listening.

Merowdis explains that a midwinter child can bring light; the wood connects this to its understanding of the hidden Sun.

Pretty and Amandier urgently beg Merowdis not to ask the wood to show her the woman it has described.

Pretty and Apple beg Merowdis to look away from the figure the wood is revealing in the vision.

The vision of Merowdis calls out to let the bear cub come to her, then the image fades.

Merowdis makes Ysolde promise not to be frightened when the child arrives.

Before entering the wood, the journey in the carriage is full of revealing small moments: a joke about Apple the pig, Ysolde's defense of their baffled father, and the animals each assuming Merowdis's words are addressed to them alone. Inside the wood, the animals explore, worry, and gently steer Merowdis away from sad thoughts after she walks for an hour before resting. Pretty plays a careful social game with the fox, pretending not to understand him, while Merowdis offers the wood her own quiet philosophy about winter listening rather than sleeping. The companions then beg Merowdis at every stage of the vision—first not to ask the wood to show it, then to look away once it appears—but she refuses both times. The sequence closes with the vision fading, and then Merowdis soothing her frightened friends before finally extracting a solemn promise from Ysolde.

The smaller conversations and moments that fill out the world around Merowdis's journey.

Ysolde insists Merowdis wear an expensive bonnet before she steps out at the wood-gate.

Merowdis reflects that she loves Ysolde dearly but finds her sister's presence a weight upon her.

Pretty barks at the approaching fox; Merowdis intervenes and silences him.

The fox asserts ownership of the wood's territory and challenges whether Merowdis belongs there.

Merowdis tells the wood that the hidden Sun is not enough for her and that she truly wants a child.

The wood reveals that all woods join up as one wood and that it can perceive all of time.

Merowdis asks the wood directly to show her the woman it has described as walking.

Merowdis at first believes the wild-haired woman in the vision is the Virgin Mary with her child.

Amandier insists the vision of Merowdis does not know what she is doing; Apple counters that she knows exactly what she faces.

Pretty blames the fox for causing the disturbing vision to be shown to Merowdis.

Merowdis comforts her distressed animal companions after the vision, reassuring them there is still time left together.

Ysolde says she is trying to be patient but no one can see it; the wood replies that it can.

Merowdis tells Ysolde the child will come with bitter cold and pain but she will feel the same joy as the Virgin.

Ysolde is frightened as Merowdis vanishes into the wood for the last time.

A church painting in a city near the wood depicts Merowdis in black, standing in a winter wood, holding a bear cub.

From the opening tension over a bonnet Ysolde presses on her sister, to Merowdis's private admission that she finds Ysolde's presence a weight, the story turns on a series of quiet but decisive moments. The confrontation with the fox—Pretty's bark, Merowdis's intervention, the fox's territorial claim—sets the stage for the wood to reveal its deepest nature: that all woods are one and that it can see all of time. When Merowdis demands to see the vision for herself, she first mistakes the figure for the Virgin Mary before the full revelation strikes her. The debate between Amandier and Apple over whether the vision-Merowdis understands her fate, and Pretty's subsequent blaming of the fox, captures the emotional fracture running through the animal companions. The pool closes with Ysolde's unwitnessed patience finally acknowledged by the wood, Merowdis's serene acceptance of the pain and joy ahead, and the aftermath of her disappearance preserved forever in a church painting.

The key decisions, discoveries, and emotional shifts that shape Merowdis's saintly destiny.