"There was nothing so vital as the tower that touched the sky . . ."

For centuries, it has been the duty of the Windspeakers to negotiate with the heavens, offering up songs written in the language of the Wind in return for an eternal paradise.  After the passing of one of these vital communicators, the sky shocks the kingdom by choosing Aren Tau, a young but more than willing son of an architect, to become the youngest Windspeaker yet.

Aren finds his new life in the Tower to be overwhelmingly more than he ever imagined, but something is amiss.  The sky is making strange requests and demands more gruesome than anything he's ever heard of, and ceremonial circles are forming under the cover of night.  He begins to unravel the mystery of the Tower and the sky, only to be snared in another web of secrets, lies, and greater dangers than he's ever known.  His life, his love, and the liberty of his people are hanging in a balance as uneasy as the skies and as fragile as the breeze.  Aren Tau will uncover the truth in time to save his city, or he will provoke and experience the merciless wrath of the heavens to its fullest extent.