Ember Reed is a fifteen-year-old shape-shifter, a creature with the ability to transform into any animal, despite it's shape or size. At least, she should be able to; Ember can't quite change her entire form, only bits and pieces. This has earned her the nickname "sucky spook" at the Sagefall Recreation Center, a place where supernatural beings go for training.
Living the life of an outcast, Ember pretends to be content with only having her cousin Jayd as a friend and keeping her nose buried in fictional stories. But when she goes to the bookstore downtown and finds a girl going through her first Shift, Ember realizes that she might have the chance to make a friend.
Ember also realizes that this girl may be in trouble, because the most powerful people of her community have been starting to disappear. After she witnesses the kidnapping of her classmate she decides to do whatever she can to save her new friend. But while trying to keep this girl off the kidnappers radar she seems to have fallen right onto it when her new power is discovered.