A magnificent, moving ecological fable: welcome to The Real, where Pyn-Poi's people live in harmony with nature - until a killing stink threatens their whole world. It comes without warning, without explanation - the sudden deadly Stink that shreds the life of the People, poisoning the land, sickening the trees, killing babies in the womb. It comes from above, from the Plains of the Ancestors, but what has caused this murderous curse? It falls to Pyn-Poi to find out. The young tree-woman must climb the unclimbable cliff, to face the Ancestors on their own ground and demand an accounting for the Stink. But the end of the climb is just the beginning of Pyn-Poi's journey. What she finds in the world above is an abomination beyond the most fearsome fire-stories of the People - and she must defeat it, or face the extinction of everything she has ever loved.
