Does power shape the user, or does the user shape the power?

Life is difficult for the Ly Kai refugees abandoned by Araxis' betrayal. Isolation, starvation, and death loom over the tower refuge of Kryie Karth. For Kaphri, the lone surviving child, it's even worse as she confronts the others' hatred and resentment every day.

Then, two days before her eighteenth birthday, their current leader inexplicably dies, and suspicious eyes turn to her. Secrets erupt in long pent-up fury and fear, and Kaphri discovers everything she knows about her Birthstar is a lie.

Terrified that she is destined for evil, she disavows her star power and flees out into an alien world with her tiny dragon companion, Gemma.

When three Geffitzi warriors capture Kaphri, they believe they have the key to repair the damage that evil Araxis did to their world. She doesn't dare tell them she may be exactly the opposite—the means for him to restore his power and renew his reign of terror.