Shade is the runt in his Silverwing colony, and he’s tired of feeling weak and small, especially around Chinook, a bat in his colony who is his same age but much larger and stronger. One night, when he’s out hunting for insects, he decides that he will show off his bravery to Chinook by staying up to see the sun. Daylight is forbidden for bats, and the newborns are told that it will “burn your eyeballs right out of your head” (9). Chinook flies back to the colony, but Shade stays out just long enough to see sunlight “so intense it sucked the breath right out of him” (14). His mother, Ariel, screams at him to take shelter because an owl is swooping in to attack.

Shade and his mother escape from the owl and make it back to Tree Haven, the Silverwing colony’s roost. Every bat is shocked that Shade stayed out to see the sun, and he’s taken to see the elder bats at their request. There is a law in place that bats must never be outside during the day, and if any bat breaks the law, it’s punishable by death from an owl.