Asher, a boy who grows wolf ears every full moon, fears he is a monster, but his mother insists he is only sick and promises a cure. She reveals she was poisoned before his birth and found a rare medicine called Moonlotus, believed to cleanse any poison, at Evergreen Apothecary run by Prince Silas. To save Asher, she sets out to retrieve it, taking a rope for unknown reasons. Meanwhile, Asher learns his mother never reached the apothecary due to its cost and instead went to the dangerous Frost Peak, filled with werewolves. Determined, Asher orders Rufus to take him there to find her.