In the shadow of a ruinous war, three young women are serving as soldiers in a barren, snow-swept landscape. Their task is to scour the frozen wastes for stragglers of the Iron Army, eerie, formerly human flesh-weapons. Gros and especially the inexperienced Leichte admire Esus, stronger and wiser than they. Esus has her weaknesses, though, and unhealed wounds in her heart. Somewhere out there in the vast, deadly sea of snow lie answers—to Esus' pain, and to the awful secret of this war.