At the center of the entwined lives of all the Newford tales stands a young artist named Jilly Coppercorn, whose paintings capture the hidden beings that dwell in Newford's shadows. With her tangled hair, her paint-splattered jeans, a smile perpetually on her lips, she's darted in and out of the Newford tales. Now, at last, we have Jilly's own story. Behind the painter's fey charm there's a dark secret, and a past she's labored to forget. That past is coming to claim her now, threatening all she loves.

"I'm the onion girl", Jilly Coppercorn says. "Pull back the layers of my life, and you won't find anything at the core. Just a broken child. A hollow girl". She's run from the past and the truth for so long. She's very, very good at running. But life has just forced Jilly to stop.