For generations, the Kalotay family has guarded a collection of rare and dangerous books. Books that let a person walk through walls, or borrow someone else's face; books of magic.
Now, Joanna Kalotay lives alone in the woods of Vermont, their library's sole protector, while her estranged older half-sister, Esther moves between countries and jobs, constantly changing, never staying anywhere for longer than a year, desperate to avoid the dangerous magic that killed her own mother. She is currently working as an electrician on a research base in Antarctica where she has found love. Maybe, finally, she feels free.