When Mitalla turns three, she learns that her mother has kept a dark secret from Mitalla is a slave. Being a member of an intelligent feline species, she has never seen a “pink and furless” human until a cruel overseer takes her and her siblings from their seemingly safe home and into a life of bondage.
Even though Mitalla has struggled to survive as the runt of her litter, she is unprepared for the harsh dystopian world of the desert where her enslaved species is forced to mine a precious mineral collected by the human king of her world.
As Mitalla comes of age, she constantly seeks ways to escape with her siblings into “the greater world,” a place her mother once described as having lush green grass and an abundance of food and water. To her advantage, her early struggles have honed her persistence and wit.
Despite her strengths, cruel guards, barbed wire fencing, swords, whips, and constant hunger make escape seem all but impossible.
Complicating matters, she discovers a cryptic message inside a locket her mother has given her, said to contain the song of the world. Inside is a confusing pattern of ones and zeroes that hint at an unfathomable mystery about the world she inhabits.
Frustrated desires finally erupt in a tragedy that forces her to make a to stay and suffer or risk her life and the lives of her family to escape. Either way, she will need all the cunning and courage she possesses to survive.