When seventeen-year-old Jorie picks the wrong corpse to scavenge from the Ice Flats, she and Cody, a gentle Southern boy, find themselves at the center of a centuries-old secret.

Everyone in Shadow Springs knows that no one survives crossing the Flats, but a steady stream of treasure hunters searches for a legendary prize hidden somewhere in the vast expanse of ice. Jorie and her sister, Brenna, survive by scavenging their possessions. When a dead man's enemy believes Jorie took something valuable from a body, he kidnaps Brenna as collateral. If Jorie wants her sister back, she'll have to trade her for the item he thinks she stole. But what is she looking for? Cody, the dead man's nephew and a scholar from the South, might be able to help. Reluctantly, Jorie takes Cody out onto the Flats with her. There they'll have to trust each other to survive threats beyond their darkest nightmares. -- adapted from jacket