Tiverdawn is a community tucked away between a mountain range and the sea. As part of apocalyptic planet-wide changes generations before, there was a massive landslide and passage over the mountains were cut off. With the earthquakes, the sea level rose, cutting them off from the rest of the world. (Or so they thought) The people who survived changed their culture, rules and way of life. One of those changes was the law that no one should attempt the ever-shifting Marreh Slide, due to a high number of deaths of those seeking a way out of the valley. The sea was too enormous a risk, and so they remained isolated from any other survivors. Tiverdawn is mostly wooded. One end of their natural, but very large clearing, is for agriculture, which the entire community shares. There is a small lake butted up against the foothills, fed by runoff and rain. Tiverdawn Lake holds a few species of fish different from those in the sea, which the people harvest for meat, skin for leather and bones for needles, etc. The community's biggest challenge is reproduction. The last generation of women is barren. The community's Elders decide to send one of the younger people out and over the Marreh Slide in search of other people. Butter, a young woman who asks questions the Elders would prefer silenced, is chosen to make the trek.