As Adelice, Erik, and Jost arrive on Earth, they travel to a city in the Interface called the Icebox. There they come across and befriend Dante. Dante is a Sunrunner, someone who collects and monopolizes on the solar trade that gives the Icebox its energy. Guild-manufactured soulless humans called ‘Remnants’ attack Erik. The Remnants include Adelice’s mother; the Guild sent the Remnants in order to find Adelice. As Dante is about to Adelice’s mother, Adelice asks him to spare her. He agrees, and takes Adelice, her friends, and her mother to the estate of his boss, Kincaid, who controls everything under the Interface (the boundary between Earth and Arras). A somewhat evasive and facetious character, Kincaid finds Adelice to be of incredible value, and offers her protection from the Guild, which she, to the chagrin of Jost and Erik, accepts.
Adelice has a conversation with the Remnant that used to be her mother. The Remnant tells her to talk to Dante, who reveals himself as Adelice’s real father. He left Arras for Earth many years ago (he is 19 but time flows by 16 times faster on Arras than on Earth). She and he have a difficult time getting along, especially because of her complex relationships with Jost and Erik.
Dante and his resistance, called the Kairos Agenda, are striving to free humanity from the control of the Guild. They, including Kincaid, are looking for a machine called the Whorl, which apparently can permanently separate Earth from Arras. In fact, Kincaid’s main goal is to do just that. Eventually Remnants attack Kincaid’s estate; ultimately, Adelice and her friends escape (Dante drugs and abandons her mother along the way). Kairos intelligence on the Whorl leads them to Alcatraz Island, where they find the scientist, Albert Einstein, who originally introduced the concept of weaves. He is locked in time and space by the Guild; he reveals that, because Adelice’s genetic makeup allows her to alter and weave, she is the real Whorl.
As Adelice and her friends are escaping with Einstein, Kincaid and Cormac arrive, with backup. Cormac reveals to have Amie in his control, and Adelice and Amie reunite. After Cormac forces Adelice to choose between Kincaid and him, she chooses to unwind and destroy Kincaid, with her newly discovered alteration skills. Eventually she leaves with Cormac in exchange for the safety of her friends. It also turns out that at the end that Cormac has turned Amie against Adelice.
