Thirteen-year-old Lillian Callahan is the good one, the girl who quietly carries everyone else’s troubles so no one has to notice hers. But something is wrong in Bethel Springs that being good can’t fix. Then she climbs into the hollow of an ancient oak, and comes out able to see it: the unseen war being fought over her family, her town, and every ordinary choice — the shining ones who guard, and the whisperers who feed on fear and silence.

Seeing is not the same as saving. And the hardest thing a brave girl ever has to do may be the very thing she’s spent her whole life running from.