Can a fragile, smiling girl who dreams of becoming a teacher be a monster? Can a monster with huge wings the color of black diamonds and eyes full of predatory hunger turn out to be a reasonable person? And can we call the most ordinary Academy, behind the cold stone walls of which people are hiding? with animal hearts and animals with human souls? My name is Arlene Weier, and very soon I will have to find out all this. Unless, of course, the mysterious rector, who makes me shiver or feel hot, doesn’t send me to the scaffold before I send him there.