Synopsis

Part 1: The Transporter in Wetledale

The story is set in the Seven Valleys Region, focusing on the most northerly valley, Wetledale. The protagonist, a seasoned Transporter, is one of the few who can cross the treacherous Last Mountains into Wetledale during winter. Wetledale, once a struggling community, has transformed into a prosperous valley renowned for its exquisite and valuable cabinet-making industry.

This prosperity, however, has come at a cost. To ensure complete focus on the cabinet industry, the Wetledale Conformance Council has established strict rules, creating a world devoid of colour, dominated by shades of grey, white, and brown. This has severely diminished the work available for transporters, as the non-perishable cabinets are now primarily shipped by sea.

The Transporter believes that the changing colours of a valley reveal its future, indicating where new cargo and value will emerge. In the new monochrome landscape of Wetledale, he literally sees no future for his trade.

A mission, given to the Transporter by the Warehouse Manager of the Transport Warehouse in Armdale, is to visit a reclusive couple known as the Fishwicks. The Fishwicks, Michael and Michele, are foragers of pure, intense natural colours, which they derive from mushrooms, roots, and berries. Their craft is now illegal under the Conformance Council's rules, forcing them to work in secret. The Warehouse Manager supports them by sending provisions via the Transporter, in exchange for their valuable, concentrated colours, which are in high demand in the southern Flatlands. He also asks them to act as spies, listening to the conversations within Wetledale's trade fraternities.

The Transporter is also making deliveries to the Decorators' Fraternity. The Chair of the Decorators, frustrated by the rules that stifle her trade, has secretly contracted the Transporter to bring an Examiner from the Ruling Council to Wetledale during the winter. She believes a surprise inspection will expose the inconsistencies in the Conformance Council rules, which are dominated by the powerful Cabinet Makers' Fraternity. During a visit to the Red Dragon Inn, the Transporter overhears two young, idealistic decorators, Helen Painter and Angela Owen, discussing their frustration with the lack of colour and their hopes that an Examiner could change things.

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Part 2: Appointing an Examiner

In the Southern City, the Ruling Council discusses a growing threat from the colourful Flatlands across the Great Southern River. A new faction, led by the Sky Lord, is gaining power, his credibility amplified by new, intensely pure colours said to originate from the Seven Valleys, supplied by the Fishwicks.

The newly elected Head of All Science, a notorious gambler, sees this threat as an opportunity to prove the value of his department. He proposes sending an Examiner to the unexamined and newly valuable Wetledale to unearth more value for the Ruling Council. Due to the risks of a winter journey, he decides to appoint a disgraced but experienced former Examiner, Jim Kirwin, who is desperate enough to accept the perilous contract.

The Transporter, acting on the Warehouse Manager's instructions, visits Kirwin in the Southern City. He offers to transport him secretly over the Last Mountains in winter, giving him the element of surprise that the Decorators' Chair desires. Kirwin agrees, and they travel north disguised as fellow transporters.

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Parts 3 & 4: The Examiner in Wetledale

While working on redecorating the Conformance Hall, Helen discovers a vibrant, skillful mural from a bygone era, hidden behind old wooden panelling. This discovery fuels her passion for colour and her resolve to challenge the rules.

The Transporter orchestrates a meeting between Helen and the Examiner as he arrives at the edge of Wetledale. Helen passionately tells the Examiner about the hidden mural and the hypocrisy of the rules, but he explains that he can only act on hard evidence of current rule-breaking, not historical art. The key to change lies in the Decorators' Fraternity's formal record book, the Fourth Element of the Record, which documents all illegal use of colour.

Encouraged by a conversation with the fraternity's Responsible Brother, who hints the record book is unlocked, Helen and Angela decide to act. Helen breaks into the Decorators' Hall to copy the incriminating page. She is nearly caught by Enforcers but is rescued by Michael Fishwick, who has been watching over her at the Transporter's request. He reveals he has already taken the entire record book for safekeeping.

The Examiner's surprise arrival causes chaos in the Conformance Council. Believing Helen and Fishwick to be the Examiner's accomplices, the Senior Responsible Brother of the Cabinet Makers pursues them to Fishwick's cottage. To create a diversion, Fishwick sets his cottage ablaze using colourful powders, and the Cabinet Maker follows him into the treacherous Black Marsh.

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Parts 5, 6 & 7: The Aftermath and a New Path

The Transporter, sent back to Wetledale by the Peacekeeper to retrieve the Examiner and secure the valley's value, rescues the stranded Cabinet Maker. He uses the opportunity to broker a truce, implying the Decorators were instrumental in the rescue.

Back at the Armdale Warehouse, the Peacekeeper pressures the Examiner to write a report that downplays the valley's problems to maintain stability. However, the Examiner reveals to the Warehouse Manager that the Peacekeeper's own servant has been playing a double game, secretly supplying the Sky Lord with the potent Fishwick colours.

A new plan is formed. Helen, now possessing a unique, shimmering black cloth created by Fishwick from the rare colour mushroom, agrees to travel south with the Transporter. Their mission is to deliver this powerful new colour to the Servant, who will pass it to the Sky Lord, decisively shifting the balance of power in the Flatlands and, by extension, the future of the Seven Valleys.

The story concludes with the Servant crossing into the Flatlands with the back cloth, thus providing the Sky Lord with the means to reverse the loss of colour across the Seven Valleys. Helen returns to Weledale having embraced her role as an agent of change, but also having reached the understanding that whereas colour is the essential means by which the future is formed, it must be used cautiously if a valuable future is to come to fruition.