At Brock Cochran's end of summer pool party, the girls vow to have as much fun as possible before they head off to different colleges next fall. But when Ella is mysteriously attacked on her way home from the party, everything changes. Ella's carefree senior year plans disintegrate as she finds herself at the center of an attempted murder investigation.Ella tries to move on, but her attacker isn't done yet. He shows himself in the form of horrifying signs and symbols: a clown mask strewn on her bed, a dead bird in her backpack, a shadow moving past her window in the night. And as the weeks pass, it turns out that Ella isn't the only one being tormented.With the help of an old flame, Jensen Carver, and her friends and family, Ella tries to attain some sense of normalcy, but she can't seem to shake the feeling that there's a dark pattern hidden in the killer's every move. Suddenly, even those in her innermost circle seem suspicious. In her seemingly safe West Virginia town, Ella starts to wonder who she can trust.

     Andrea froze. His back was turned away from her. He didn't know she was there, listening. "It's been six months, for God's sake. If you harm one hair on her head, I’ll contact the authorities. My father would be disgraced, but that will not deter me." Now Andrea couldn't move. There was no doubt Rolph was talking about her. She wondered how his father, the French Ambassador, could be disgraced. His voice modulated to a threatening whisper. "This is the end. Otherwise she goes directly into protective custody, and I spill my guts. You've lied to me, made me into a damned traitor, and I'm angry enough to do it out of spite." Now Andrea knew there were secrets he was keeping from her. What did he mean about protective custody? Was she in danger? The one blank spot in her mind was a mysterious car crash six months ago. She didn't know how she had landed at the bottom of a cliff in the Santa Monica mountains of Los Angeles. She remembered the fabulous party in Beverly Hills that night, but try as she might, she couldn't remember the sequence of events leading to that accident. Rolph's last words chilled her, "I have nothing to lose. I'm a dead man."