"Ash Winters was once the golden boy of the English literary scene, but mental illness has dragged him into a cycle of self-destruction. A chance meeting with brassy Essex-born Darian Taylor may be the first step Ash needs to rebuild his life--if he's able to let go of the class prejudice and dangerous negative self-image that threatens to drown them both"--

Two sisters, aged fourteen and fifteen, offer their views of events that occur during the year after their mother is diagnosed with schizophrenia and their family, including a recently adopted Russian orphan, begins to disintegrate.

A series of journal entries, emails, stories, and newspaper articles reveals the strange events that led to the disappearance of a reclusive author on Halloween night and the involvement of a teenager and his friends--a brother and sister some say can transform into animals and back again.