Amani Al'Hiza is a poor female orphan living in the desert nation of Miraji, where mortals rule but mythical beasts nevertheless still roam the wild and djinn, if rumors are to be believed, still practice magic in secret places. Longing to get out of the backwater town of Dustwalk by some other way other than getting hitched or killed, Amani enters a shooting contest--an accomplished gunslinger herself--and meets a mysterious, rakish foreigner named Jin who begins to show her a larger world.