An anarchic city. A soldier with an ugly past. The missing girl she won’t give up on. Global warming has divided the continent. In the drought-stricken South where the populace is as barren as the land, an authoritarian government promises comfort if not freedom. To the north is anarchy. Devastated again and again by hurricanes and tremors, wildfires and flooding, everything is broken and nothing is ever rebuilt. Samarra, a southern soldier, has fled to the Barrow, a northern city where the only things growing faster than the city’s piles of garbage are extremist cults and violent gangs. Her sole objective is survival: to stay hidden and stay safe. With jobs in short supply, Samarra counts herself lucky to find work with the Vauns, one of the Barrow’s most powerful and dangerous families. As she learns to navigate the beauty, the horror, and the magic of the lawless city, she finds herself living in the shadow of a missing woman—the beautiful and mysterious Raina, who worked for the Vauns before her. When the trail, long thought cold, heats up, Samarra must decide whether her newly gained chance at freedom is worth sacrificing for a ghost.