Meredith's idyllic childhood ends after her mother's death. She's forced into a disturbing household with other women, children, a controlling man. As her existence there grows bizarre and terrifying, she escapes, feeling ill-prepared.

Every childhood is normal to the child who lives it. For Meredith that means an enchanted seclusion that is shattered when she is deprived of her mother. Desperate and alone, Meredith must join a household with other women and their children, a sinister man who controls every facet of her existence, and a vicious bear that only she can see. As life in this world becomes increasingly strange and frightening, Meredith realizes that she must flee, even though she fears she has not learned enough to survive on her own.—Kristy Nielsen