Ayla is just a normal 17-year-old girl... that grew up in a dwarf community. Although she knows that she is a human, her knowledge of the human world is severely lacking. She is ugly by dwarf standards; too tall and too slender with black, unruly hair, and nearing the end of her years of eligibility. It seems that all hopes for her future are lost, until one night she runs away, distraught from the other young dwarves mocking her. She falls into the river and is carried down to the human world. There she is found by an arrogant prince named Noland and his solemn captain, Roderick.

Ayla was found as a human baby in a forest next to a dwarf village. An old widower finds her and decides to take her in as his own child. Sixteen summers pass, and Ayla begins to feel more like an outcast in the village than a member. After a public humiliation, she escapes into the forest to avoid the embarrasment of seeing her dwarf father. After being startled, she falls into a deep stream and that carries her away. The next day she finds herself far away from her dwarf home with her own species.