After the death of her mother, Wendy discovers that attempting to fill her mother's shoes as a Lightbringer is far more difficult than she ever imagined. Learning that she is part of a powerful and ancient family of Reapers that her mother had forsaken is just the first surprise. Wendy soon discovers that the ghostly Never of the San Francisco Bay is filled with mysterious political factions that want to use her for their own ends. Abandoned by her dead boyfriend, Piotr, Wendy struggles to navigate a dangerous course between the machinations of the dead and the dark intentions of her living Reaper family. Betrayed and dying herself, the clock is ticking--Wendy has only a matter of days to unravel the mysteries her mother left behind and to convince the Reapers to accept her as one of their own.