Gathering Blue - Plot

Plot

Kira is a girl with a twisted leg who lives in a more primitive society where people who can't work die. She has been kept alive by her mother, and, when her mother dies, is brought before the Council of Guardians. Kira's life is spared when she proves she can embroider well, and is assigned to the task of fixing up the robe worn by the singer whose only job is to sing the story of human civilization once a year. She meets Thomas, the boy whose duty is to carve the Singer's staff; and, when running out of thread, begins making a trip to the hut of Annabella, an old woman who teaches Kira dyeing. Annabella shows her the plants needed to make every color, except for blue.

Kira slowly learns that her life is less than idyllic. She hears crying in her building, and she and Thomas discover another orphan girl whose ability is to sing and will eventually replace the current Singer. The orphan girl is scolded and punished if she doesn't sing; Kira befriends her but realize that she, Thomas, and the orphan girl do not have as much freedom as thought. At the Ceremony, she sees the Singer (whose robe she is fixing). She realizes that his feet are chained, and he is essentially a prisoner. The implication is that she and the others with Gifts are also prisoners.

Kira is also friends with a boy named Matt. Matt tells Kira of a village he once came across while lost in the woods. This village has blue. When the day that the Singer sings his song comes, Matt is nowhere to be found. He eventually returns with a blind man from the village in a blue shirt. The man, it turns out, is the father whom Kira thought was dead. He now lives in a community made up of injured and disabled people who help one another. He has enemies on the council and is forced to return, while Kira decides to stay in the village to continue to mend the singer's robe and help improve the society she lives in.