Ian lives in an isolated town where people who believe that low a self-image, violence, and discontent come from failing. The town's people create a group called the Protectors. Their job is to guard everybody's self-image by discouraging new ideas and avoiding the frustration of failure. A drastic climate change that's causing crop failures makes Ian realize that, unless the town's people change what they're doing, they'll all die of starvation. He and a friend leave their village and sail across The Forbidden Sea. There they find a civilization, previously unknown to them, that believes that failure is part of learning. Shadows of Control follows Ian as he gains knowledge about this new way of thinking, and his attempts to save his people. Filled with natural disasters, wars, betrayal, and more, this novel puts the Ian through a gauntlet of trial and error in his quest to help his town survive.