Scrappy sky pirate Clikk flies aboard The Wastrel disguised as a man. Girls are bad luck on the air, and if anyone finds out about her she will be expelled at the nearest port, lest the airship catch fire and fall from the sky.

 

Airmen have a host of superstitions, but as it turns out, not everyone believes in them. The captain himself has a young girl named Molly stowed in his cabin. Molly is under a curse that makes her unable to stop crying, and the only cure is listening to a mysterious song Clikk plays for her on her violin.

 

When Clikk hears of the captain's plan to sell Molly as a bride to the emperor's son, she begins to question his ethics. Robbing people seems reasonable enough, selling children as brides crosses a line, especially where the emperor is concerned.

 

The emperor rules through terror and cruelty, allowing his subjects to starve while he throws extravagant parties in the sky. Clikk has hated him all her life, ever since his army marched through her homeland and brutalized its people. As she gets to know Molly, she learns there is more to this exchange than holy matrimony-Molly has a secret that could be the catalyst for a revolutionary war. Clikk would give anything to see the emperor unseated. She schemes to help Molly escape, but first, she must inspire a mutiny, stop an imperial wedding at sky, and sneak the girl onto a hijacked ship, all while enduring the girl's intolerable crying curse.