Lily Parker is just another teenage girl living in upstate New York. That is until her parents get offered a new job in Germany, and send Lily to the gothic boarding school St. Sophia's in Chicago. Lily, not being another trust-fund baby like most of the other girls at the school, doesn't see how she fits, and yet almost instantly finds a friend in her new suitemate, Scout. But Scout is different, and her strange quirks are established on Lily's first night at school. She slips into the darkness, returning hours later at one thirty in the morning. In those first few days at St. Sophia's, Lily experiences normal things like cute boys and schoolwork, but some things just aren't normal. A blond girl at the end of an alleyway, there one second, then gone, loud noises in basement corridors, and Scouts curious night journeys. Lily's interest flares and the next night when Scout once again slips away, only one thing is different& Lily follows her. She is determined to find out what her new friend is hiding, and with that discovers not only herself, but a world far beyond her imagination.