Frex is the ambitious, joyless Governor of Munchkinland — a man who married for politics and loves his position more than his wife. Melena is a woman of passion, beauty, and deep, restless boredom who finds in a glassblower named Turtle Heart something her marriage never gave her. Their story is a quiet tragedy — intimate, morally complex, and culminating in the birth of a green child that will destroy them both in different ways.
