Sixteen-year-old Gretchen has been waiting forever to trade life on a dreary orbiting station for life on gloriously regenerated Earth. Still, visiting faerie-infested Britannia is not on her agenda-especially since no human who's ventured there has ever returned. But when her stepsister sneaks off to the island to meet a faerie boyfriend, Gretchen's stepmother forces her to choose: risk death to rescue the runaway, or forfeit her father's life.

Lost in the faeries' forest, Gretchen meets a family of Bearfolk-fae who can shift between human and bear forms. Kindhearted seventeen-year-old Arthur volunteers to help, while his mother, who believes Gretchen is the heroic Silverhair of faerie legend, schemes to use the girl for darker purposes.

When the quest to save the runaway proves costly, will Gretchen and Arthur find the courage to sacrifice what they hold dearest to save the ones they love most?