A young girl is captured by scavenger army raiders, separated from her mother, and—alongside other children—forced to rummage the post-apocalyptic ruins of the raiders’ town. In the wasteland, she finds an artifact from the Before, offering her and the other captives a chance at freedom.

A young woman has been mocked and shunned by her family for her entire life, never taken seriously as a contender for inheriting her grandmother's magical powers — so, as her grandmother's death approaches, the young woman decides to prove to herself once and for all just how much her family has underestimated her.