"For a young woman coming of age in the early 1800s, about all that's available to her is marriage. When Constance's parents arrange her a marriage with a man more than twice her age, she's powerless to resist. Four months into the marriage, she slips out of their bed in the middle of the night, and puts on his clothes. Sneaking out of the house before dawn, Stance visits the baker's scrawny son, who has just been drafted into the army, and offers...

"Seventeen-year-old Pip takes the headstrong twelve-year-old Iris under her protection in the wake of an earth-shattering plague. The duo must navigate the nearly unrecognizable remains of the Spokane Valley, facing roving slave traders, merciless gangs, and worse. Pip and Iris soon meet Fly, a stubborn and courageous older girl, and as the three grow closer and their circumstances grow more perilous, they must also grapple with their own identities...