When Cecily Bain, an enforcer for the Twin Cities' vampiric elite, takes a mysterious new vampire, Alejandra, under her wing, she's dragged into an insidious conspiracy. After learning a disturbing fact about her fake childe's past, Cecily must keep her secrets close, and Ali at arm's length. As she searches the streets of the Twin Cities for answers, a terrifying possibility surfaces: perhaps Ali has learned the ways of the Kindred better than Cecily herself. Meanwhile, on the outskirts of the cities, Colleen Pendergrass, embraced by her husband against her will, and a rebellious found-family of vampire cast-outs investigates a vicious killing. As the unlives of the Kindred twine together and betrayals are unearthed, will Cecily be able to escape and save what's left of her family, or will she be yet another pawn sacrificed to maintain the age-old secret: that vampires exist among the living?