Like all of Notowi's pilot cadets, Mokwin Gallworm is looking forward to a simple but exciting life flying on the backs of the island nation's huge birds. Mokwin's expectations, however, are shattered when he receives the startling news that he's been named as the next Wingmaster Chief and ruler of the Notowi - a role he didn't know he was under consideration for. As he tries to determine how and why he even became a candidate, doubt creeps into Mokwin's mind over whether he can step up. But he'll have to rise to the occasion and fast when hostile Bargasia declares war, sending its Grand Armada in an invasion force to overrun his homeland. Mokwin and the other young pilots move out to the front lines in a desperate attempt to halt the inexorable Bargasian advance. Mokwin is determined to do the best he can with his situation and ensure the survival of his people, but he can't protect everyone. As casualties mount and he's forced to watch as friends and comrades die around him, the reality of war weighs heavily on his mind and he struggles with feelings of inadequacy and incompetency. As if all of this weren't enough, exposed enemy secrets and increasingly bizarre behavior by the Bargasian royalty reveal that dark powers may be at work behind the scenes of the war and his unexpected election - unnatural, unholy powers thought to be the stuff of ancient myth. With enemy forces closing in on his homeland, Mokwin is thrust into a race against time to discover the truth behind the war and his unwanted position of responsibility before all he has ever known collapses before his eyes.