Thirteen-year-old Conor awakens one night to find a monster outside his bedroom window, but not the one from the recurring nightmare that began when his mother became ill--an ancient, wild creature that wants him to face truth and loss.

Sixteen-year-old Erin's life is fairly normal until she learns that her mother has breast cancer and she, too, may carry a mutated gene, so amid high school dramas including betrayal by her best friend, she must consider preemptive surgery to guarantee she won't be stricken.