On her last day of high school, Cassandra Devlin walked out of exams and intoa forest. Surrounded by the wrong sort of trees, and animals never featured inany nature documentary, Cass is only sure of one thing; alone, she will belucky to survive.The sprawl of abandoned blockish buildings Cass discovers offers her only morepuzzles. Where are the people? What is the intoxicating mist which drifts offthe buildings in the moonlight? And why does she feel like she’s beingwatched?Increasingly unnerved, Cass is overjoyed at the arrival of the formidableSetari. Whisked to a world as technologically advanced as the first wasprimitive, where nanotech computers are grown inside people’s skulls, and fewhave any interest in venturing outside the enormous whitestone cities, Cassfinds herself processed as a stray, a refugee displaced by the gates tornbetween worlds. Struggling with an unfamiliar language and culture, she mustadapt to virtual classrooms, friends who can teleport, and the ingrainedattitude that strays are backward and slow.Can Cass ever find her way home? And after the people of her new worlddiscover her unexpected value, will they be willing to let her leave?