Faith is a widowed mother who gets on a ship journeying from earth to a post-apocalyptic world. While scientists bring vials of plant and animal genes to re-cultivate upon landing at the New World, Faith boards the ship with her storytelling abilities and domestic skills. While on board, Faith begins having dreams about a bear prince that reminds her of her deceased husband—some of the dreams are sensual. Still, she marries Abraham, a scientist on board, and together they have her second child—a daughter. The daughter, named Patience, is physically stronger and possesses physical features that do not match those of Earth-born children; specifically, she has white fur. Patience also has special storytelling abilities and tells the shipmates the myth of the bear prince, as told to her originally by her mother. Faith wonders if her daughter's unique characteristics are related to the dreams she's been having—if, perhaps, the bear prince from her dreams could have conceived her child. One day, when exploring the ship's labs, Faith discovers that Abraham has genetically modified their child and somehow planted the bear dreams in Faith's mind. When confronted by Faith, Abraham says he did so in order to create an "origin story" for the next generation of genetically modified/created individuals that would populate the New World. He claims the importance of myth or fairy tale in driving a population forward. Faith reflects on the violation she feels, as well as on the concept of storytelling itself. She begins altering the story by including her own variations of the fairy tale's ending which she passes on to Patience. Through her alterations to the myth, Faith begins to make this "origin story" her own.