Sai is the novel’s protagonist and first-person narrator. She works as an Assistant, a role that entails a year of service before entering school at age 13; the position is only available to children of upper-class families. Although she is of humble origins, Sai pretends to be from such an upper-class family as she waits in line for breakfast at the Three Onions Café with the city’s other Assistants. One of them, Tippy, shows off a new bracelet with seven gold links. It’s a lineal, a gift given to every upper-class citizen on their 13th birthday. The number of links indicates how many generations of respectable ancestors that person can claim. Sai will turn 13 in a few months, but she won’t get a lineal because she has no noble ancestry. If anyone knew her true background, they would dismiss her as worthless.

Sai lives in the city of An Lung. It is part of the Kingdom of Mangkon, which was historically known as the Nine Islands. Mangkon has just emerged from a 20-year war, and its citizens are now experiencing peace and security for the first time in more than two decades.