Content Warning: This section of the guide includes depictions of graphic violence and sexual coercion.

Nineteen-year-old human Feyre Archeron (pronounced “fay-ruh”) hunts near the border between the mortal and faerie realms. Five centuries before the events of the novel, enslaved humans waged war against their faerie overlords. The ancient treaty from this war divided the world with a magical wall, and all humans now live cramped into the southern portion of the world. Feyre’s village lies at the southern tip of a massive island. The majority of the island is north of the wall and separated into seven faerie courts collectively known as Prythian. Humans still hate and fear faeries, and there have been recent reports of enormous wolves in the woods near the border wall, potentially faeries in disguise.

Desperate to feed her impoverished family, Feyre hunts despite the rumored danger, and, while she is tracking a doe, she encounters an unnaturally large wolf. Feyre debates the possible consequences for killing a faerie; she fears that her family will starve if she is killed. Feyre shoots the wolf with an arrow made of ash wood. Faeries are immortal but can be killed, and ash slows their supernatural healing abilities.