It begins with a view from high above, of the isle of Great Britain. Over this appear, in quick succession, images of the seven trees (holly, oak, alder, birch, hazel, willow, apple), as the point of view moves in swiftly on the Thames, and the site that will become London.
[0:12] As the drumbeats pick up, the point of view settles into a position in the sky above Lambeth, encompassing the City proper, with Westminster on the left and Southwark in the lower right edge of the frame. The image is not static: the city grows from nothingness into a village, then a town. Walls appear as the town develops, and a bridge stretches across the Thames. The first cathedral springs up on the site of St. Paul's, in the western half of the city. The White Tower is constructed in the east, and the cathedral is replaced, its spire rising into the sky. The "liberties" outside the walls begin to spread. The city changes abruptly: St. Paul's is replaced by a new cathedral, with a dome, and east of it the Monument spikes upward. The point of view begins to pull back, at first slowly, then with increasing speed, to bring into frame the ever-growing city as it overtakes Westminster, Southwark, and other nearby towns. Industry blackens the city, and more bridges appear: Westminster, Blackfriars, Tower Bridge, and more. In its last phases, the city grows explosively, rushing outward to swallow everything that surrounds it.
Laid over this background image of the changing city are slow-motion scenes of its life. Celts, Romans, Saxons, and Normans appear successively in its streets. Well-dressed men gather in the Guildhall. Plague victims lie in gutters. Ships crowd the London Dock. In the Globe Theatre in Southwark, the Lord Chamberlain's Men stage one of Shakespeare's plays. Civil war erupts, with "Roundhead" Parliamentarians patrolling the streets. A parade for the return of Charles II, but then plague returns as well, ending when fire sweeps across the image, burning London to the ground. A factory appears, with dead-eyed workers stumbling out of it. Members of high Victorian society laugh in an elegant drawing room. An early subway train tunnels beneath the city. The Blitz rains fire down on London, and then it is the modern day, with businessmen crowding the sidewalks.
[0:40] The music changes, and both the image of London and the scenes of mortal life vanish, replaced by images of fae that succeed one another relentlessly, a new one every two beats:
[0:59] As the music grows quiet, the last image is of the Albion Pool, with the seven trees standing sentinel around its edge. Over this sight appear brief shots of the four main characters as they appear in 2006: Rowan, in dark clothes, crouching on a rooftop and looking out over nighttime London, stars far too bright in the sky above her; Bethy, in Copper's Bookshop, looking up at the camera and smiling as she opens the book before her, which begins to glow with white light; Yorke, standing in a rainy courtyard, in a full fencer's lunge, with a grin on his face; Wessamina, sitting at her desk, reaching for her guns as she hears something outside.