After her parents die under mysterious circumstances, sixteen-year-old Renee Winters is sent from California to an old-fashioned boarding school in Maine, where she meets a fellow student to whom she seems strangely connected.

The soul that Renée and Dante share cannot sustain them both but Renée may hold the secret of eternal life which they must keep safe from the Liberum and a team of Monitors as they cross Europe seeking the Netherworld, a legendary chasm where souls go to be cleansed.