Content Warning: The source material features depictions of child abuse.

Isla Crown, an orphan and the ruler of Wildling, returns to her room after a secret trip with her starstick, a magical artifact that can instantly transport her long distances. Her guardians, Terra and Poppy, a fighting instructor and a charm instructor, arrive to prepare Isla for the Centennial. The Centennial is a hundred-day event that takes place every hundred years. During this event, the rulers of all six realms—Wildling, Starling, Moonling, Skyling, Sunling, and Nightshade—meet on the storm-tossed isle of Lightlark to compete in games with the goal of winning back the power each realm has lost and breaking the curse each realm is under. The Wildlings used to have almost unlimited power over nature, making plants grow at will, but now they are cursed to live off of human hearts and kill anyone they fall in love with. Terra and Poppy have been training Isla since birth to fight and seduce, with the plan that she will use these powers to win the Centennial. After vowing to follow their orders, Isla greets a crowd of Wildlings wishing for her success at the Centennial.