For decades Prosper Train station has thrived under the guidance of its Honoured Ancestress: born of a human womb, the station’s artificial cleverness has offered guidance and safety to its human relatives.

But battle has come to the Dai Viet Empire. Prosper’s brightest thoughts have been called away to guard the Emperor; and a flood of disorientated refugees strain the station’s assets. As deprivations cause the station’s normal existence to unravel, uncovering old grudges and tearing apart the decimated family members, Station Mistress Quyen and the Honoured Ancestress struggle to keep their family members united and safe. What Quyen does not know is that the Honoured Ancestress herself is definitely faltering, her mind eaten apart by an illness that seems to have no remedy; which the continuing future of the place itself might hang in the balance .