Where Emmeline lives, you cannot love and you cannot leave... The Council's rules are strict, but they're for the good of the settlement where Emmeline resides. Everyone knows there is nothing but danger beyond the Wall, and the community must prepare for the freezing winterkill that comes every year.

But Emmeline struggles to be obedient under the Council's suffocating embrace - especially when she discovers that a Council leader intends to snatch her hand in marriage. Then Emmeline begins to hear the call of the trees beyond the Wall...

Emmeline lives in a dark, isolated land with merciless winters and puritanical rulers. When the leader of her settlement asks Emmeline for her hand, it is an opportunity to wash her family's slate clean. Emmeline cannot ignore dreams that urge her into the dangerous woods that took her grandmother's life and her family's reputation.

A young woman escapes her settlement community to seek her destiny on an unforgiving and mysterious frontier in this suspenseful YA series debut. Emmeline knows she’s not supposed to explore the woods outside her settlement. The enemy that wiped out half her people lurks there, attacking at night and keeping them isolated in an unfamiliar land with merciless winters.

Living with the shame of her grandmother’s insubordination, Emmeline has learned to keep her head down and her quick tongue silent. When the settlement leader asks for her hand in marriage, it’s an opportunity for Emmeline to wash the family slate clean—even if she has eyes for another. But before she’s forced into an impossible decision, her dreams urge her into the woods, where she uncovers a path she can’t help but follow. The trail leads to a secret that someone in the village will kill to protect. Her grandmother followed the same path and paid the price. If Emmeline isn’t careful, she will be next.