Before getting to the end of season one, there is a subplot to explain based on Bardugo's other Grishaverse books.
In season one, we also follow a band of thieves from Kerch on a near-impossible mission to cross the Fold, kidnap the rumored sun summoner, and bring her back to Kerch's capital city, Ketterdam.
The thieves, known as the Crows, are made up of three people. Kaz Brekker (Freddy Carter) is their lock-picking criminal genius leader. He is calculating and cruel, and harbors a grudge against the leader of the Ketterdam criminal underworld, Pekka Rollins (Dean Lennox Kelly).
Inej Ghafa (Anita Suman) is a Suli traveler who was kidnapped from her family and enslaved in Ketterdam. While she works as Kaz's spy, the criminal mastermind is paying off her indenture, a slave contract, so that she can be free. In episode two, Kaz hands over the lease to his club, the Crow Club, as collateral to Inej's former master Tante Heleen (Deirdre Mullins) in order to take the spy on the mission.
Finally, there's Zemeni sharpshooter Jesper Fahey (Kit Young), who has a gambling addiction.
The Crows are hired by a wealthy merchant called Dreesen (Sean Gilder) to kidnap Alina for a million Kruge (the currency in Kerch).
Working with a smuggler called the Conductor, they travel through the Fold and attempt to kidnap Alina, but Alina gets away from them and they have to fight a group of Grisha hunting them.
In the finale, they attempt to return to Ketterdam after the shameful failure. However, it is unclear what is waiting for them since Tante, Dreesen, and Pekka will all be angry with their failure.