As the story goes, after the great clan wars, two sisters dwelt on the edge of the canyons, in the manor of the Lord and Lady McCormick known as Bainsford. Each of them bears their own burdens of birth. Elsie the scars and markings of her people, the na hÉireann, men of science and discovery. Annalicia the condition she inherited from her father, a hideous, violent man - an outsider.