Ella Keyes thought the death of her twin brother Stuart was the last time she'd let life surprise her. She's up for tenure at her university, she escaped a doomed engagement, and her fluffy cat knows exactly when to expect her home every day. But when her grandmother passes and leaves Ella her house, Ella discovers that the third floor corridor of keys is more than just a family pun. The seemingly-unremarkable keys don't unlock any doors in the house, but each time Ella touches one, something in her life shifts. Her life's carefully-grown roots are ripped out of their soil. Flowers bloom in the middle of a Buffalo winter. A blind date with the wrong person ends up being just maybe the right one. Her grandmother's batty twin sister turns up every day searching for something even she doesn't know how to identify, and Ella's parents refuse to return her calls. Worse, she finds trinkets from Stuart everywhere she goes, ghosts of a game they used to play. The leash she's kept on life's surprises for three years has snapped, and Ella will have to learn that the road to peace starts with letting go of control and that sometimes the best family you have is the family you build.

In the not-too-distant future, the State runs the entire educational system from top to bottom. It has been that way almost all of Adam’s life. He has been through many different Houses of education, but this newest one, where he is set to “graduate” into the real world, is different, way different. There is something more sinister about it. After unraveling some secrets about the adults who run it, Adam realizes that only with the help of his peers can he overcome a serious dilemma. Will he get enough help? Or will he just be another in a long list of those that pay the price for being insubordinate?