Sixteen-year-old Solma is supposed to protect Sand's End village from danger. But how can she protect her people from dying crop? Or skies that have been empty of birds and insects for the last century? Or the fact that so few children live through the winter? Her own brother, Warren, is only seven and she's terrified he'll be the next one the village loses to starvation.

But then, Solma and Warren discover something crawling out of the soil. Something impossible. Something that could give the dying continent of Alphor - and their little village - a chance. But no-one has seen a bee in a century, so how could this one possibly survive? What will it eat? Where will it nest? Solma is convinced there's no chance, but something strange is happening between Warren and the newly emerged bee, a kind of bond. Another impossible thing.

And it turns out, it's also impossible to keep this tiny being a secret. As other village Stewards invade Solma's little village, having heard whispers about the miracle bee, Solma begins to realise the insect extinction wasn't an accident. Something happened all those years ago, something deliberate and disastrous and terrible. Something that will happen again, if Solma doesn't work out who she can trust, and fast.

Because not everyone wants the bees to thrive freely. Some want to control them. And some want them gone altogether ...