When Mallory's homeschooling ends and she's transferred into the private Cloud Academy, she comes face to face with a world that seems to know a lot more about her family's past than she does--and it doesn't sound good. As she embarks on a quest to learn the truth about the late parents she never knew, she discovers a cryptic poem left by her mother that sets her and her friends, Isaac and Saki, off on a journey deep into Brookwood Forest to find the mysterious Dreaming Tree.

​

The path is treacherous, as Mal and her friends are hunted by Animus, a bitterly idealistic runaway cloaked in a tattered teddy bear suit--and the leader of the lost Milk Carton Kids. But with the help of an apparitional wild child named Ava, who has a mystical connection to the Dreaming Tree, Mallory and her friends uncover something far bigger than they ever thought possible. The question is, can she bear the truth?