A few weeks into her sophomore year at Ventura High School in California, everything is about to change for Wren Verlaine. It's always been just Wren and her mother, Hannah, but when Hannah receives a reporting assignment that sends her to Greenland for six months, Wren is shipped off to Hardwick Hall, an old, prestigious boarding school back East.

For every ice queen like her suitemate Honor, who looks right through Wren like she doesn't exist, there's also a rower with adorably crinkly eyes (that would be Nick) or a friendly and funny fellow musician (like Chazzy). But just as Wren finally starts to settle in at Hardwick, clues begin appearing about the one secret her mother has ever kept from her—the identity of her father—and what Wren ultimately discovers threatens to turn her and her new world upside down.