Picturesque retreat Valley of Rubies is intended only for the young women of Sanctity Covenant, but dark secrets lurk behind locked doors. The truth that emerges from the shadows is nothing less than terrifying.

Adel Rosse, an investigative journalist for Vanity Fair in the cutthroat world of Manhattan journalism, has just been handed an assignment that will catapult her career—if she can survive undercover at Valley of Rubies and find out what lies beneath the surface. Just as she starts to uncover the nefarious truth behind the shadowy cult running the organization, she falls in love with the one woman who holds the key to the story...if only she knew the reason Adel was there was to write one.

Grace Waters is an old maid at twenty-six, at least by Covenant standards, and her annual idyllic summers spent as an instructor at Valley of Rubies are rocked by the sudden expectation that she must marry a man she despises at the end of the session. If she refuses, she risks being excommunicated—or worse—but a mysterious new writing instructor at camp makes her brave enough to wonder what would happen if she dared to write her own story.