The following version of this book was used to create this study guide: Kingfisher, T. Nettle and Bone. Tor Books. 2022. Kindle.

The novel is narrated in third-person past with a narrator who focuses on the protagonist, Princess Marra. Marra was born in the Harbor Kingdom, a small kingdom located right between the Northern Kingdom and the Southern Kingdom, who were at war with one another. In order to create peace for the Harbor Kingdom, Marra’s mother arranged for her eldest sister, Damia, to marry the prince of the Northern Kingdom. However, six months later her body was returned because she had fallen to her death on accident. A year later, the prince married Marra’s only remaining sister, Kania. Marra, meanwhile, was sent to a convent so that she would not have any children before Kania did. Marra loved being at the convent and working with the nuns.

When Kania finally gave birth to her first daughter, Marra and her mother went to visit her. Kania told Marra that if anything happened to her, Marra should avoid marrying the prince at all costs. A few months later, when Marra was 30, a plague swept through the world and killed Marra’s niece. Marra returned to the Northern Kingdom for the funeral and saw that her sister had bruises on her wrist. Kania confided to Marra that the prince beat her and would probably kill her once she produced a male heir. After she left, Marra told her mother what she had learned, but her mother already knew. She insisted that nothing could be done for Kania. However, Marra decided that she wanted to help her sister, so she got the idea to seek out a dust-wife, a type of witch who worked in graveyards and spoke to the dead.

With the nuns’ blessing, Marra left the convent and found the most powerful dust-wife in the land. She asked for help killing a prince, and the dust-wife set her three impossible tasks: “sew a cloak of owlcloth and nettles, build a dog of cursed bones, and catch moonlight in a jar of clay.” Marra sewed the nettle cloak successfully, even though doing so cut her fingers to the bone. Next, Marra went to the blistered land, which was cursed because its residents had to resort to cannibalism when they started to starve. Most of the cursed people were kind to Marra, but they warned her about the evil ones who were still hungry for the flesh of humans.

Marra found a charnel pit full of bones and dug through the bones to find the remnants of a dog. She tied the bones together with wire. An evil cannibal approached Marra, but she hid in the pit of bones with her nettle cloak and avoided detection. After the cannibal left, the bone dog ran away and Marra cried because now she had no evidence to show the dust-wife. However, when a man accosted Marra and accused her of being a cannibal, the bone dog ran up and attacked him. Marra rejoiced and took the bone dog to the dust-wife, who was shocked that Marra had done two impossible tasks. She decided to scrap the last task and to help Marra kill the prince. Marra decided to name the bone dog: Bonedog.

Marra and the dust-wife were making slow progress because they had to hide Bonedog, so they stopped at the goblin market. Marra traded two weeks of her life for a moth who would show her what she needed. The moth landed on an enslaved warrior named Fenris. Marra traded one of her teeth for his freedom. Next, the group went to buy Bonedog a glamour that would make him look like a normal dog. They left the goblin market. Marra offered Fenris his freedom, but he said he would pledge his honor to her and help her in anything she needed. She explained to him about the prince and her sister, and Fenris agreed that they should definitely kill the prince.

The group continued traveling north, but then the dust-wife said they should stop and visit Marra’s godmother, Agnes. When they arrived, Agnes explained that she could perform curses like an evil godmother, but the only blessing she could give children was the gift of health, so that was all she ever did. Marra felt frustrated because the prince had a powerful godmother who served his family. Agnes decided to help with the mission, and the group continued to the palace.

When they arrived in the royal city, they decided to rent a room at a boarding house so they could plan their strategy. Agnes visited the prince’s godmother, who revealed that she had been cursing the family for years, ever since the first king in the dynasty had bound her to the royal family and forced her to protect them from other magic.

The group decided to go into the tombs beneath the city and find the ghost of the first king so that they could ask him to release the godmother so that Agnes could curse the prince. On the day Marra’s sister gave birth to her first son, the group went into the tombs and found the king’s ghost. He refused to release the royal godmother, but the dust-wife fought him and forced him to.

The royal godmother died and then Marra and her friends rushed to the palace just in time for the christening. Marra went in first and announced that the royal godmother was dead, which shocked the prince. Agnes came in next, with her evil magic activated so that she looked tall, slender, and with blazing green eyes. She cursed Kania’s son to grow up fatherless, and then the guards attacked her. Bonedog protected her while she fled. The guards crushed Bonedog. Fenris snuck into the room and stabbed the prince. The guards started to attack Fenris, but Kania ordered them to take him alive so he could be questioned. She took control of the situation and asked two powerful men to serve as regents with her.

Kania conspired with Marra to help her escape. She had her guards gather Bonedog’s bones and gave them to Marra, then ordered Fenris to be entombed alive. Marra said goodbye to her sister forever, then went into the tombs with the dust-wife to rescue Fenris. They met Agnes, back in her normal form, and they took a wagon out of town. The dust-wife and Agnes went off to live together. Marra and Fenris put Bonedog back together again and nearly kissed, but then Bonedog jumped on them.