A reckless dare

An all-girls secret society

A mission to destroy Westinghouse's lights

And monsters hiding in the greatest city of the nineteenth century

Chicago, 1893

When Clara arrives at St. Joan's Academy for Girls, she tells no one about her family's connection to the school: how her great-aunt went missing from there years prior. But once Clara infiltrates the school's secret society-the Alouettes-she learns there have been others to have vanished from St. Joan's, and all clues point to the next disappearance occurring on the first day of the Chicago World's Fair.

Fernando escaped the collapse of his family's business in Brooklyn through the financial help of Mr. Rex Winston, a financier at the World's Fair. Now Fernando works on the Ferris Wheel to pay Winston back, but when he runs out of time to honor his debt, Winston makes him a deal: absolution if Fernando can destroy the fair's expensive incandescent light show, a task Fernando has no choice but to accept.

Clara's initiation to join the Alouettes leads her onto the fairgrounds, where she meets Fernando during a heights-defying dare not for the faint of heart. Together, they learn of a bigger mystery in Chicago, one that powerful men are desperate to keep secret. But once they look closer at the link between the missing girls and Westinghouse's forthcoming light show, Clara, Fernando, and the Alouettes find themselves in the company of a danger the city knows nothing about.