The player controls protagonist Booker DeWitt (Troy Baker), a disgraced member of the Pinkerton National Detective Agency emotionally scarred from the acts of violence he committed at the Battle of Wounded Knee. Faced with mounting gambling debts, he is sent to Columbia to rescue Elizabeth (Courtnee Draper), a young woman imprisoned there since childhood, who has the ability to open Tears. Her confinement has been maintained by Songbird, a large, robotic bird-like creature who has been both her friend and her warden, and which has been programmed to feel betrayal should Elizabeth attempt to escape.