When the accidental prick of a sharp splinter results in a life-threatening infection, 16-year old Macy becomes delirious and is at death's door. Like a modern day Sleeping Beauty, she hovers between life and death in a drug induced coma, awakening in a beautiful land called Chanticleer, where everything is always, absolutely perfect. So perfect that Macy is convinced she must have died and gone to heaven. She is quickly assured that she is only almost dead and, like all the other students there, she has been brought to Chanticleer to eliminate her pesky childhood fears. She is soon off on a series of frightful challenges designed to make her a stronger, braver girl. Just like in a real dream, life at Chanticleer is a mixture of the weird and the wonderful and Macy struggles to feel at home. Chanticleer is not without its dark side, and every student knows it is best to learn your lessons quickly and get out because those who can't, or won't are subject to a hideous fate. For hidden away deep in the forest is a secret museum housing the Shells of Chanticleer-the end result of a nightmarish punishment inflicted on any student too lazy or scared to do what they are told. Macy soon learns that there is nowhere to hide in Chanticleer, no way to lock your bedroom door, no one to stop the men ordered to take you away in the middle of the night when your time is up. Macy vows to do everything she can to get out of Chanticleer quickly. Yet when she falls for Sebastian, a fellow student, she suddenly changes her mind. For to wake up from Chanticleer is to forget everyone there and forgetting Sebastian is the last thing she ever wants to do. But no one in Chanticleer is who they seem to be and Macy soon discovers that her and Sebastian's fairy-tale ending will come at a price, a price she may ultimately be too afraid to pay.