The Harp Thief is set in the Great Forest, an early American type of wilderness where the heroes do not always win and life can be fraught with difficult lessons. It follows Jack Spriggins—a defiant thirteen-year-old thief who picks pockets in the frontier town of Rivercross; rescues his only friend, Ella Vintner, from the clutches of a rogue in a wolfskin cloak; and sets off on a rash mission climbing a mountain to recruit a race of arrogant oversized men into defending the forestlands from a bloody invasion.