Fire can be either a beginning or an ending. For Astatine, it is both. Arson is rare in the city of Auburn, a place where cats dominate the streets humans abandoned long ago, but it can happen. And Astatine has a feeling that whatever caused the fire that burned down her house and killed her older sister has a face and a name. She's determined to punish her sister's murderer in whatever way possible, and she will do anything to find them, no matter the consequences. Even the best of intentions can lead to the darkest of things.

The cats of the mountain have only one enemy: the wolf pack. The wolves linger on the edges of their territory, and their howls echo through the pine forests each night after the sun goes down. Generations ago, they were revered as gods; a single bite could kill a cat and their paws shook the earth when they hunted. Now, they are feared, both in legends and in reality. Many have fallen to their jaws. They are savages, unpredictable, irrational, unnatural. The greatest punishment to be inflicted on a cat is to be forced into their skin. The elders have a fairytale, passed down from mother to kit for countless years. It tells of a cat who was cursed by his ancestors to be trapped in the body of a wolf each winter night. The sickness took hold in his body and transformed him into something monstrous. A murderer. A cat-eater. It's a kit's tale with a clear moral: Stay away from the wolves. But what happens when the line between reality and fantasy blurs? What happens when the darkest kit's tale the elders have ever invented becomes real?