Ellie is in her sixties, gruff and independent. She doesn't expect much from life; it's broken enough promises to her. The only ugliness in the world Ellie can truly clean up is the graffiti marring mailboxes in her neighborhood, and she centers her days around this as one of the few acts that gives her a little peace. When a fifteen-year-old goth girl appears offering to help, Ellie is surprised--and suspicious. Sarah has been shunted from house to house in the foster care system. Now she's run away from a forest camp managed by a tyrannical, enigmatic man.... But escape is not that easy, and soon she finds her life in danger. And Ellie may be wrapped up in this more deeply than either imagined.