Which is more deadly: the secrets we keep from each other, or the ones we keep from ourselves? Stefani Palmieri is a woman on a mission. A long-hidden technology, the Bridge, consumes her every waking moment, a compulsion that seems to come from outside her. All she knows is she has to get it working as fast as possible, while ignoring the sense that she is not herself. Struggling to adjust to a life of school, a home, and a family, Marri Palmieri misses her time as a homeless orphan. At least then she didn't feel the inexplicable urge to kill her adoptive mother Stefani, nor did she have visions of a strange man following her, a man no one else can see. Karl Yonnel has lost the two things that mattered most: his life in the Lancer Corps and his relationship with Stefani. Dishonorably discharged for doing his duty, he ekes out a living ratting out criminals for money to police who'd just as soon see him dead as a traitor. But when Stefani approaches him with a new job, he'll be forced to infiltrate those same police to uncover a growing conspiracy that threatens the entire city. As Coldgarden's long-buried secrets come to light and the city begins eating itself from the inside out, Stefani, Marri, and Karl will have to contend with threats both human and alien in their desperate efforts to save their dying world.