Though only fifteen, Maquia knows she will live for centuries without aging past adolescence. She belongs to the Iorph, a clan of ageless beings just like her. Maquia's elders warn her not to fall in love with anyone outside their realm, lest she wish to encounter true loneliness in the end. But fate pushes Maquia out into the mortal world one night, when an invading territory separates her from the clan. There she discovers an orphaned baby, Ariel....

50-year-old Halla, a passionate environmental activist, secretly wages war on the local aluminum industry to prevent it from disfiguring her country. She risks all she has to protect the highlands of Iceland--but discovers her application to adopt has finally been approved and there is a child in the Ukraine waiting for her.