In a shrouded valley, lost to time, a Gelfling boy is nurtured and taught by the wise Mystics.

With kindness and patience, the ten gnarled sages share with Jen the shapes and names of the world of Thra. With gentle, protective arms they keep him here, secret and safe from the horrors outside. For beyond the confines of this hidden sanctuary the Three Suns burn above a world out of balance, where Gelfling are no more. The last of his kind, Jen bears the burden of a dark and terrible time before he was born, but while he knows of the cruel Skeksis who murdered his parents from his master ?s stories, only as the Great Conjunction approaches does he learn the full truth of the tale and the part he must yet play in its telling.

Change comes, and with the passing of urSu, the Master, Jen must forsake his home, farewelling his surrogate family to venture forth into strange lands. Journeying beyond the walls of the vale he seeks a creature by the name of Aughra, from whom he gains a strange gift: a glittering shard of pure crystal.

Before he can learn what to do with this artifact, crab-like Garthim, soldiers of the Skeksis, attack Aughra ?s home, leaving Jen alone in the world that hunts him. Afraid and uneasy as the Three Suns climb toward each other in the sky, Jen is left with more questions, a growing sense of dread, and a purpose yet to be understood or fulfilled.