In a world on the brink of a war between humans and magical creatures, it is not armies that make the gods tremble, but a nutshell and a holey hat. Theo Hackerman has known little of life: only barren fields and the brutality of Selke's butcher shop. Yet, he harbors a dream: to find the legendary Dead Sea, a place full of lost treasures, wishes to be granted, and secrets the world has chosen to forget. It was an old shepherd who had told him about it: gruff, certainly, but also the only caress the sky had ever granted him. At his death, Theo inherits almost nothing -just a handful of wool and a promise: to leave the fields, reach the sea, and become free. And so he sets out. Without a ship, without maps, knowing of the sea only the rivers that flow into it and the puddles along the road, Theo faces a harsh, hostile, frightening world - and precisely for that, familiar. So he does not tremble when the waves cease to obey, when old currents deceive, or when magical creatures bend the routes to disorient humans. He cannot get lost if he does not know where he is going. And so, in the chaos of his journey, Theo, in search of a legend, will give life to a new one: that of his crew. The Vultures.