Sophie was able to heal Alden, after he broke under the guilt of shattering Prentice's mind when he was actually innocent. She did this by inflicting positive feelings using her powers as a Inflictor, while the Council had assumed that an Inflictor could only ever inflict negative feelings or pain.
After Sophie's strong mental powers proved capable of what was always believed to be impossible— healing broken minds— the Council schedules a task for her: to heal Fintan. Fintan was a guilty member of a rebelling organization that has harmed many people with his Pythothesis powers. However, healing his mind is extremely dangerous as his powers are strong, and he can easily summon fire— or worse— everblaze. The Council plans to have Sophie heal him, so they could probe his mind again and discover what he is hiding in his memories.
Returning to Foxfire, news has spread quickly. People greatly disapprove of this decision, especially Wylie— who is Prentice's son, and doesn't understand why they would heal Fintan but not Prentice. Marella, who was once Sophie's close friend, "abandons her" to join in Stina's side opinion. Though Sophie does not like this one bit, she has more problems to worry about other than Marella's betrayal to their friendship.
On the day of the healing, before the time comes, Sophie discovers that the Neverseen has hidden their tracker on Silveny after her professor finds traces of the contamination on her and Keefe's hands. A whole investigation sets out, and the professor, who has lived with ogres before, identifies it as one of their machines. This causes Sophie to be suspicious if the ogres are working with the Neverseen.
The day of Fintan's healing comes, and the Council has made precautions to ensure everyone's safety. Fitz has been specifically trained to aid Sophie as she attempts to probe Fintan's mind, as they all know how dangerous his mind actually is. They enter a building, prepared for the healing— but not prepared for the traps Fintan has set. Though he appears to be unconscious, the important memories that they are searching for are very closely guarded. Sophie has almost found the one she needed, when Fintan called down everblaze and Fitz pushed her out of the way just in time.
The building burns to the ground, the deadly fire spreading through the entirety of Eternalia. Fitz and Sophie are collecting quintessence needed from an unmapped star, Elementine, to stop the fire— whilst the others are rescuing the people still trapped inside the building and hoarding the rest of the needed ingredients.
Later, Alden tells Sophie that two people have not survived the fire: Fintan and Kenric. She is horribly devastated and stricken with guilt— but after knowing how guilt can shatter elvin minds, she hangs onto anger instead. The Council decide not to punish her since it is not her fault of the destruction caused, but the rest of society seem to blame her for a Councilor's death.
Dame Alina, Foxfire's principal, is chosen as the Councilor in replacement of Kenric. During Kenric's planting, the ogre king Dimitar comes to "pay his respects." Sophie, being suspicious of the ogres after finding their tracker on Silveny, attempts to secretly slip into King Dimitar's mind and find the answers she was looking for. Her friends surround her, keeping watch even though they do not approve of this idea. However, before she can truly slip inside his mind, Fitz shakes her awake. The ogre king has noticed her presence and declares war because Sophie has broken the elves' and ogres' treaty. The Councilors manage to convince him not to, by promising severe punishment for Sophie and by declaring that she has not actually broken it.
This public trespassing sends Eternalia into turmoil. People are creating petitions to get Sophie exiled or expelled, and she is hated for causing so much trouble— and in order to satisfy their accusing clamors, the Council plans her punishment in front of public. The Council has tricked Dex into making an "ability restrictor", Dex thinking instead he was making a perfectly safe, useful ability-enhancer— and they use this to "keep Sophie's powers under control." They put the mechanic on Sophie but it turns out to be horribly painful. Dex, left with no choice, fixes the mechanic and puts it back on Sophie. Now, she is unable to use any of her Talents and is left with no powers.
With the loss of her powers, Sophie is sent into a spiraling stage of depression and helplessness. The restrictor makes her brain slow and she feels useless without her Talents. She watches with sadness as the Black Swan almost immediately replaces her with Biana, and her friends plan on journeying without her. Her friends and family are worried for her, but can only helplessly watch. Many times, Dex offers to deactivate the mechanic, but Sophie refuses, wanting to protect him from being exiled.
Sophie starts looking through Edaline's old things to keep looking for Jolie's missing notebooks. She finally finds a notebook in a secret compartment thanks to Jolie's sentient mirror, and discovers that the unregistered pyrokinetic was Brant.
Sophie tells Grady and he gets furious. He storms into Brant's home, where they discover that he was not broken like they originally thought he was. Instead, he had turned insane from guilt after Jolie's death. He visits Brant, but Sophie follows, and they fight. Sophie calls Dex for help, who destroys Sophie's ability restrictor. Before escaping, Brant says that the Neverseen knows about the ambush at Mount Everest, and Sophie teleports there to warn her friends.
Soon, fights break out. Keefe finds out his dad was not guilty, but rather, his mom was pretending to be his dad. Biana is threatened to be dropped off a cliff, and Keefe's mom jumps off and saves herself with an ogre shapeshifting ability. They manage to capture one of the Neverseen, Gethen: however, much lives were lost and everyone else had escaped.
Sophie and her friends decide to run away and join the Black Swan. Their parents reluctantly agree, and Fitz, using a piece of memory that he extracted from Sophie's brain, discovers that their new destination was in Italy. The story ends with them planning the journey, and with Sophie saying, "Let's join the Black Swan!"