Guinevere Sharpe has two childhoods. In one, she and her brother, Ennis, live in the wooded shadow of their family's isolated Vermont farmhouse. In the other, they live in the pages of their mother’s world-famous Ninth City books. In reality, Guinevere's childhood isn't the enchanted idyll her mother’s readers imagine. As Edith Sharpe’s books explode into epic popularity, the threats of a rural childhood give way to the escalating perils of fame --- until the night it all goes up in flames, leaving Edith’s series unfinished and her children the sole survivors. Now an adult, Guinevere is forced to confront the questions she has spent the last 20 years running from: What really happened the night of the fire? And what dark history lies behind their mother’s fantasy world?