Elected as the Songstress, Aria takes her place on the sacred platform to sing before every dawn. As long as she does so, peace and abundant life belong to her people. One morning, everything goes wrong and she loses her ability to make music when Aria is distracted by a strange wind, an eerie howl and a shape, almost like that of a man, appears.

The dreaded Il-Bora, a magnificent winged creature, prophesied by Aria's people as the one who brings death, watches the singer with intent. He is set to doom her by orders from his master, the evil serpent, yet her voice gives him pause. More than her voice. In fact, he is strangely drawn to the girl and finds, for the first time, unable to do his master's bidding.

The Il-Bora is severely punished and tragedy strikes Aria's village, yet somehow the two survive. The greatest calamity might be that she has come to adore the cause of her blunder, the winged man who's stolen more than her voice, her heart too. And the Il-Bora? He's beginning to comprehend a strange, new warmth.