Ferguston, Ontario, is an angry little town full of dark secrets, a place where keeping your head down is never a bad idea. That’s fine with Justin Lambert, an introverted, biracial 12-year-old who generally prefers books to people anyway.

Against all odds, Justin has found a new friend. Her name is Billie. She’s sweet, precocious, and a bit feisty. She also isn’t human.

David Raymond, on the other hand, is all too human. A brutal, volatile thug and celebrated public nuisance, he was the only person of interest ever named in the suspicious disappearance of Justin’s mother 10 years ago. Although he was never convicted, the lingering stink of suspicion has followed him around for a decade, and he blames the Lamberts.

Now Justin and his dad have stumbled upon evidence that could get the case reopened. When Raymond gets wind of this, his anger is reignited, and he is very good at making bad things happen.

Meanwhile, Justin is learning that Billie has an agenda of her own, and it’s on a scale that defies comprehension. If Justin’s life is threatened–increasingly likely these days–he can’t be sure if Billie will intervene on his behalf, or look at him as just one of an infinite number of variables in some unimaginable cosmological equation.

One way or another, Justin is about to find out.