diff --git a/crates/obscura-dom/src/tree.rs b/crates/obscura-dom/src/tree.rs
index eeef499..0c554bc 100644
--- a/crates/obscura-dom/src/tree.rs
+++ b/crates/obscura-dom/src/tree.rs
@@ -839,18 +839,22 @@ impl DomTree {
         self.append_child(parent_id, text_id);
     }
 
-    pub fn find_body_or_root(&self) -> NodeId {
+    /// The node whose children are a parsed fragment's top-level nodes: the
+    /// synthetic root `<html>` element html5ever wraps a fragment in, or the
+    /// document if there is none. Importing this node's children reproduces the
+    /// fragment as written.
+    ///
+    /// This must NOT descend into a synthesized `<body>`. A `<body>` child of the
+    /// root only appears when the fragment is parsed in the `<html>` context
+    /// (documentElement.innerHTML), where html5ever's "before head" mode
+    /// synthesizes both `<head>` and `<body>`; returning the body there dropped
+    /// the head siblings. Every other element context leaves the parsed content
+    /// directly under the root, so it is unaffected.
+    pub fn fragment_root(&self) -> NodeId {
         let doc = self.document();
         for child in self.children(doc) {
             if let Some(n) = self.get_node(child) {
                 if n.as_element().map(|name| name.local.as_ref() == "html").unwrap_or(false) {
-                    for html_child in self.children(child) {
-                        if let Some(hc) = self.get_node(html_child) {
-                            if hc.as_element().map(|name| name.local.as_ref() == "body").unwrap_or(false) {
-                                return html_child;
-                            }
-                        }
-                    }
                     return child;
                 }
             }
diff --git a/crates/obscura-js/src/ops.rs b/crates/obscura-js/src/ops.rs
index eac338e..440b7c9 100644
--- a/crates/obscura-js/src/ops.rs
+++ b/crates/obscura-js/src/ops.rs
@@ -431,7 +431,7 @@ fn op_dom_inner(state: &OpState, cmd: String, arg1: String, arg2: String) -> Str
                     Some(name) => obscura_dom::parse_fragment_with_context(&arg2, name),
                     None => obscura_dom::parse_fragment(&arg2),
                 };
-                let import_root = fragment.find_body_or_root();
+                let import_root = fragment.fragment_root();
                 dom.import_children_from(target, &fragment, import_root);
             }
             "true".into()
diff --git a/crates/obscura-js/src/runtime.rs b/crates/obscura-js/src/runtime.rs
index 92a900d..d2ded4d 100644
--- a/crates/obscura-js/src/runtime.rs
+++ b/crates/obscura-js/src/runtime.rs
@@ -2142,6 +2142,38 @@ mod tests {
         );
     }
 
+    /// Setting innerHTML on the <html> element parses in the "before head"
+    /// insertion mode, which synthesizes head and body. The importer must keep
+    /// both; it previously returned the synthesized body and dropped the head
+    /// (so a <title>/<meta> assigned this way vanished).
+    #[test]
+    fn documentelement_inner_html_keeps_head_and_body() {
+        let mut rt = setup_runtime("<html><head></head><body></body></html>");
+        let v = rt
+            .evaluate(
+                "(function(){ document.documentElement.innerHTML = '<head><title>T</title></head><body><p>hi</p></body>'; \
+                 var t = document.querySelector('title'); var p = document.querySelector('p'); \
+                 return (t ? t.textContent : 'no-title') + '|' + (p ? p.textContent : 'no-p'); })()",
+            )
+            .unwrap();
+        assert_eq!(v, serde_json::json!("T|hi"));
+    }
+
+    /// Regression guard: innerHTML on an ordinary element still imports the
+    /// parsed nodes directly (no head/body is synthesized for a div context),
+    /// so the fix above must not change the common case.
+    #[test]
+    fn ordinary_element_inner_html_imports_content_directly() {
+        let mut rt = setup_runtime("<html><body><div id=\"d\"></div></body></html>");
+        let v = rt
+            .evaluate(
+                "(function(){ var d=document.getElementById('d'); d.innerHTML='<span>a</span><span>b</span>'; \
+                 return d.children.length + '|' + d.textContent; })()",
+            )
+            .unwrap();
+        assert_eq!(v, serde_json::json!("2|ab"));
+    }
+
     /// Issue #463: the same must hold for a template that arrives via innerHTML
     /// rather than the initial document parse — that is how most frameworks
     /// inject templates.