In the far future on a cold and snowy planet, an aging woman seeks a successor to her role as Kunchen: a bearer of memory for her people across generations, a role in which one must live a long and lonely life punctuated by decade-long cryosleeps.

When an anthropology professor moves with his family to a remote home on the Great Plains, a new friendship with an idealist, a landscaping disaster, and a disheartening consultation with an Indigenous man shake his beliefs about cultural relativism to the core.

The last weaver in the world uses her powers to save her great-granddaughter from an abusive man. An elderly woman saves her great-granddaughter from an abusive man with the power of weaving, an ancient art from her culture in which one threads stories into skin.

A young poet and a draconologist are the last survivors of a task force sent to seek out a dragon, who they must ask to become the next guardian of their people’s memories for fear of losing them all.