Most people on Pern are protected from the deadly thread that fall from the sky by the safe walls of their holds. Some, however, have either been cast out from their hold or choose to live free from the constraints of a hold. Amina and Jayge are two such outcasts, whose lives are now threatened by a group of outcasts who have organized themselves into a renegade gang under the leadership of Lady Thella. Thella wants Amina, who is reputed to have a telepathic link to dragons, but she makes the mistake of making an enemy of Jayge, who will stop at nothing to keep her from getting the girl who speaks to dragons. .