Jorren Borriwack, a once well-regarded tailor capable of sewing magical clothes for the Upper City, has since been banished to the Lower City for her impertinence towards a member of the Swathed, the dominant class. She spends her days in exile working with non-magic clothing until Araias, a member of the powerful, dangerous Swathed, orders her to make him a coat from the sky. Jorren is able to reunite with her lover Tyan in the Upper City for the project, but soon realizes that her privileged lover is selfish for robbing others of their youth to make a jacket of near-immortality—so she departs the City. Back in her shop, she finishes the coat. A gray ghoul named Misery attempts to steal the finished coat from Jorren in the hopes of using it to burn down the Upper City, but he is chased away by Araias. Instead of giving Araias the coat, Jorren uses it to fly to Tyan. However, Tyan is ungrateful; he tries to convince her to obey Araias. Jorren realizes that Misery was once a tailor who fashioned the sky into a dress for the Swathed and who now decays in regret at his mistake, for his creation gave the Swathed the power to control the hope for freedom infused in the sky, allowing them to quell revolts within the Lower City. Jorren takes to the sky and begins cutting up pieces of her coat, letting them rain down on the Lower City so that they can spark hope and revolution within its inhabitants.