After eleven winters sealed beneath the salt house, Vesper — the Keeper of Hours — walks out into a country that has forgotten her, hunting the four instruments that were taken from her the night the tide turned.
While hunting a dream loose in the waking world, Vesper is caught by Halvard Crane, an antiquarian who intends to keep her.

The search for her instruments — the glass, the salt, the copper bell — begins with two brothers who have not spoken in thirty-one years.

Vesper traces the glass to its last keeper and gets an unwelcome lesson in mercy. Ottilie pays an overdue visit to her son.

A rumour about the copper bell sends Vesper below the waterline to bargain with the Warden of Ash. A stranger takes Jonas in.

With Vesper distracted, Jonas settles into a night diner to watch the room — and tests his theory about honesty on the wrong man.

An old acquaintance walks Vesper through one ordinary afternoon, and the Keeper of Hours learns what her absence actually cost.