Four children, having survived a shipwreck and a week with no food, arrive on a deserted island in the Pacific Ocean, missing two of their friends, and find themselves in danger of being found by some very dangerous people.

When sixteen-year-old Canny of the Pacific island, Southland, sets out on a trip with her stepbrother and his girlfriend, she finds herself drawn into enchanting Zarene Valley where the mysterious but dark seventeen-year-old Ghislain helps her to figure out her origins.