A new consciousness awakens inside Theo's body and immediately faces his family's fury after he's caught selling the household's winter grain. Theo's father, injured and unable to hunt, and the rest plead for food; Theo resists, threatens to bash his head if stopped, and wanders off drunk under Lucy and Sam's influence. That night he is abandoned outside and struck dead by lightning. The occupant finds a mysterious turtle shell and hears a voice about cause and effect. He resolves to atone by caring for the family, but whether the shell can foretell fate and the household's survival remains undecided.