So many secrets for such a small island. From the moment Anne Merchant arrives at Cania Christy, a boarding school for the world's wealthiest teens, the hushed truths of this strange, unfamiliar land begin calling to her -- sometimes as lulling drumbeats in the night, sometimes as piercing shrieks. One by one, unanswered questions rise. No one will tell her why a line is painted across the island or why she is forbidden to cross it. Her every move -- even her performance at the school dance -- is graded as part of a competition to become valedictorian, a title that brings rewards no one will talk about. And Anne discovers that the parents of her peers surrender million-dollar possessions to enroll their kids in Cania Christy, leaving her to wonder what her lowly funeral director father could have paid to get her in... and why. As a beautiful senior struggles to help Anne make sense of this cloak-and-dagger world without breaking the rules that bind him, she must summon the courage to face the impossible truth -- and change it -- before she and everyone she loves is destroyed by it.
