In the exposition, Sophie is living in San Francisco, she is a 12 year-old senior. On a field trip to the local museum, she runs into Fitz, an elf, who tells her that she is also an elf, and that they've been looking for her for 12 years. Sophie doesn't believe him and thinks that he's crazy, so Fitz "blinks" which makes him invisible for a second and then light leaps her to Eternalia. The next day, Fitz brings her to his house where they have lunch with three of the counselors. (Counselors are the elven leaders, there's 12 of them) Sophie is being tested to make see if she qualifies for Foxfire, the elves most prestigious academy. She passes and is told that she can't go back to her human family so she is moved to live with Grady and Edaline, a couple who lost their only daughter in an accidental fire.(though Grady believes that his daughter was murdered) Sophie starts school and quickly becomes friends with Dex, Edaline and Grady's nephew, Marella, and Jensi. Later on she becomes friends with Biana, Fitz's brother, Keefe, Fitz's best friend, and Fitz. 
        In the rising action, Sophie is getting notes from a mysterious rebellion group, The Black Swan, Sophie quickly becomes aware that The Black Swan, who were responsible for her living with humans since birth, had implanted memories into her brain. Sophie was ordered to record any dreams and memories that she remembered into a journal and to tell Alden, Fitz's dad, if she found anything. A while later, Sophie found out that there were fires burning all over the forbidden cities (the lands of the humans) all burning bright yellow and all started on the same day across the globe. The council ruled out elven involvement and ruled it by being set by a human arsonist. Sophie believes that it is a fire called Everblaze, that can only be set by elves, however the only pyrokinetic capable of surviving setting Everblaze is Fintan, one of the original three Councillors. Sophie believed it was him, so she broke the law and went to bottle up the fire as evidence. Not only had she broken the law, she had broken a promise she had made with Alden earlier that day. The Council called for a tribunal in the next few days. The next day when she went to school, she ended up leaving early and running down to the caves at her home, when she got there, people in black cloaks were waiting for her with a sedative, Dex who had been told by Fitz that he should go check on her came down to the caves, both her and Dex were kidnapped by the cloaked elves. The cloaked men took off their registry pendants, given by the council to elves to monitor their movements, staged a tsunami and threw in the registry. The investigation didn't find any bodies, but they found their registry pendants and everyone believed they were dead. A funeral was held for them.
        In the climax, they were being held in the basement of a building in the forbidden cities, Sophie was going in and out of consciousness because of the sedatives they were giving her. When she was "awake" she tried reaching out to Fitz through her telepathy, a great feat making her one of the strongest telepaths in the world, however Fitz thought it was his imagination since Sophie and Dex were "dead". However, a mysterious elf from the Black Swan came and rescued her and Dex. The mysterious elf quickly abandoned them in the forbidden cities with only three words on a note to guide them home. Sophie quickly figured out the clue and went to the bridge which should help them get away.
        In the falling action, the kidnappers find them at the bridge and hit Dex with a melder gun, Sophie gets angry and another special talent awakens, the "inflictor" talent and she quickly knocks the kidnappers out and leaps Dex to the Four Seasons Tree in the Lost Cities. However, Sophie lost too much of herself in the leap and started to "fade away". She called out to Fitz again telepathically, and told him the description of where she was. Fitz told Biana and Keefe about it and Keefe identified that the place "Sophie" had described was the Four Seasons Tree and convinced him to go check the Four Seasons Tree just in case they were there. When they arrived Sophie had nearly faded away completely and they leaped Dex back to Everglen, Fitz and Biana's home. Elwin came and poured a sedative down Sophie's throat and they leaped her back to Everglen, to give her further treatment. Sophie was unconscious for 2 weeks before she woke up.
        In the conclusion, Sophie had to face the tribunal because of the laws she had broken, however the sentences would go up in her record as "already served" since the Councillors had failed to keep her safe and they thought it would be inappropriate for them to further punish her. Since she was gone for 3 1/2 weeks, she had missed the finals and so her teachers found stuff that she had done that would make it so she'd get 100% in the finals. All of them except one, who said she couldn't find any way for her to pass Sophie since Sophie wasn't doing good in her class. Because of this, people thought she was going to be kicked out of Foxfire, however Alden brought up that the rules only said she had to qualify for 8 subjects, not that she had to pass 8 subjects and since Sophie had manifested as an inflictor, it would be reasonable to replace that subject, that she obviously didn't have any future career prospects with, with a subject of studying inflicting. The council assigned Sophie a goblin bodyguard and Sophie went back to living with her adoptive parents, Grady and Edaline.