Ever since her father was killed in a home invasion, Julia “Jules” Farentino has been plagued by nightmares. Her half-sister, Shaylee, now seventeen, has had her own difficulties, earning a lengthy rap sheet. Still, when Jules learns of her mother’s decision to send Shay to Blue Rock Academy, an elite boarding school in Oregon, Jules is skeptical. A student went missing a few months earlier and there are rumors she may have died during one of the school’s questionable treatments. On impulse, Jules applies for a teaching job at the Academy. Shortly before she arrives, a student is found hanged, another near death. Hysterical, Shay believes it’s murder. Staff members are wary and unwelcoming—all except Cooper Trent, who has his own suspicions, his own secrets, and was once Jules’s lover.