In the overthrow of the Mexican government, Beatriz’s father is executed and her home destroyed. When handsome Don Dodolfo Solórzano proposes, Beatriz ignores the rumors surrounding his first wife’s sudden demise, choosing instead to seize the security his estate in the countryside provides. She will have her own home again, no matter the cost.

Opal is a lot of things - orphan, high school dropout, full-time cynic, and part-time cashier - but above all, she’s determined to find a better life for her younger brother, Jasper. One that gets them out of Eden, Kentucky, a town remarkable for only two things: bad luck and E. Starling, the reclusive nineteenth-century author of The Underland, who disappeared over a hundred years ago.