Young man wizard meets girl wizard, and they fall in love. The young man, Ben Troon, is required to go far away to continue his studies. He then finds he has lost his girl, and becomes distraught. His mentor, wizard and bookseller Ailsa Bleakwill, takes him to see the Archmage, Caerlugh, who introduces him to the mysterious Motria, and sends the pair of them on a mission to tour his whole world of Anoone and write about what he sees in a journal, the Book.