It's 1836 and Allie Donovan is a new student at St Matthews Academy, an aristocratic English boarding school with a unique curriculum, where she doesn't exactly fit in among the high born students. Allie is guild born, meaning she was born into one of the four guilds that make up society’s underworld: The Runners (thieves), Skin Dancers (assassins), Grim Reapers (war profiteers), or Whisperers (spies) – but she’s very tight lipped about which one it is she belongs to.