Everyone knows it's important to tolerate the differences in the people around us. But there's a difference between tolerance and acceptance, and in New Peiling, that difference defines the lives of its hybrid citizens-those humans who share their soul with a fairy. Life is hard for hybrids in the post-Cataclysm metropolis of New Peiling. Most live out their entire lives in the slums of the city's lower sector, struggling every day with violence and poverty with little hope of ever improving their lot in life. So it's no surprise that the rate of suicides among hybrids is by far higher than the human population, but when Fergus Irvine returns to his apartment one afternoon to find his best friend and roommate hanging in his bedroom, he knows better. Unable to accept that Flynn would kill himself, Fergus decides he must find out for himself what really happened. Drawn deeply into the intrigues of the city, he must survive arson, anti-hybrid vigilantes, airship crashes, ravenous fairies, and his catty kind-of-girlfriend to peel back the layers of lies and find the truth about Flynn... and himself.