Jacinda is a teenager living in a cloistered community of people who have the ability to manifest as dragons. She has a twin sister named Tamra who has never manifested as a dragon. Jacinda's mother has long ago stopped manifesting and has apparently lost the ability. Jacinda's mother and sister are treated with indifference by the pride but Jacinda, the pride's only fire-breather, is coveted and there are hopes that she will produce children who have that ability. Toward that end, Jacinda is being paired with the pride's likely future leader, Cassian. Although Jacinda likes Cassian, she hates that she's being forced to choose a mate. As the story opens, Jacinda and her best friend Azure are flying in the daylight though the activity is strictly prohibited by the pride. When hunters find them, Jacinda leads them away while Az hides. Jacinda is wounded and cornered when a hunter named Will tells the hunting party he no longer sees her, leading them away.

Jacinda is haunted by her moment of face-to-face contact with Will but doesn't know why. When she returns to the pride, she's in serious trouble for having attracted the attention of the hunters. That day, Jacinda's mother slips away with Jacinda and Tamra and only much later does Jacinda learn that her wings were to be clipped, a painful and humiliating sentence for Jacinda to withstand.

The three wind up in Arizona where Tamra, who has never manifested and been all but ignored by the pride, fits in immediately. Jacinda soon discovers will is a student at her high school. She tries to fit in for Tamra's sake and tries to ignore Will because she fears doing something that will lead him to the pride.

Will and Jacinda are attracted to each other and nether can seem to ignore the other. Everyone at schools knows when he begins paying attention to her. A girl who had hoped to gain Will's attention is furious over the situation and begins to make things difficult for Tamra in retaliation. One night Jacinda slips away to a golf course where she flies for awhile, her one relief from the stifling lifestyle she's being forced to live. When she's headed home, she encounters Will. She initially runs from him and cuts herself but gives in to his request and lets him give her a ride home. She's bleeding and Will gives her his shirt to stop the flow. Only later does Jacinda realize she's left his shirt in his truck and she knows that he'll realize that Jacinda is not human after all once he sees the purple draki blood.

Jacinda goes to Will's house where there's a barbecue going on and Will reluctantly invites her inside. She finds a reason to be alone and finds the shirt. She finds a room in which draki skin is used on furniture and she's furious but renews her resolve to get away. Then she's caught by Xander, Will's cousin, who sees the t-shirt and the blood. Instead of jumping to the correct conclusion - that Jacinda is draki - he jumps to the conclusion that Will has been hunting without the family. Jacinda then learns that Will had almost died of cancer as a child and that his father gave him a transfusion of draki blood that saved his life.

Will and Jacinda decide to stop fighting their attraction for each other and Will asks Jacinda out on a date. As they are leaving, Jacinda discovers Tamra is with Angus and Xander. Will agrees they should go with them to be sure Tamra is okay. Cassian soon finds them and Jacinda manifests in front of a group as she tries to save Will from a horrific fall. It seems Jacinda has put the entire pride at risk by revealing that draki can manifest from human form. Jacinda and Tamra leave with Cassian with Jacinda realizing that she'll be punished for her actions but Cassian pledging that he'll try to save her from having her wings clipped.