Sixteen-year-old Odile vies for a coveted seat on the Conseil. If she earns the position, shell decide who may cross her towns heavily guarded borders. To the east, the town is twenty years ahead in time. To the west, its twenty years behind. The towns repeat in an endless sequence across the wilderness.

When Odile recognizes two visitors she wasnt supposed to see, she realizes that the parents of her friend Edme have been escorted across the border from the future, on a mourning tour, to view their son while hes still alive in Odiles present.

Edmewho is brilliant, funny, and the only person to truly know Odileis going to die. Sworn to secrecy to preserve the timeline, Odile now becomes the Conseils top candidate. Yet she finds herself drawing closer to the doomed boy, jeopardizing her entire future.