On the brutal streets of Hellip, a village in the vast empire of King Ibis, lives twelve-year-old Tucker Scrap. Abandoned as an infant, Tucker is now the leader of the town orphans. Along with her friends Ash and Kally, she attempts to keep one step ahead of the king's Blackcoats, stealing what she needs to survive and pondering her own unknown origins. But when Ash and Kally vanish from the orphanage, perhaps headed for the faraway city where King Ibis rules, Tucker has never felt more alone. Then mysterious Vivian arrives in Hellip with a strange invitation that might help Tucker find her missing friends. Overnight, Tucker leaves the savage streets behind and enters a foreign world of private tutors, etiquette lessons, and silk dresses. And when she unleashes supernatural powers she never knew she had, she begins rewriting the future of the entire kingdom. A bold, memorable heroine at the center of a centuries-old mystery, Tucker steps into her destiny.