Two girls find a dragon like no other-and their lives will never be the sameIn an alternate Old West, Isabella and Alijandra live exiled with their parents in the high desert. Years before, the girls' father caught, tamed, and trained dragons for the Emperor's armies, but now he is an outlaw, blamed for the deaths of thousands. Finding a small dragon gravely injured after a fight, the girls take her home and begin tending her back to health. Alijandra calls the dragon "Pearl," after her round white eyes. As time goes on and Pearl begins to heal, the family learns more about her and the strange and terrifying abilities she possesses. But time is running out for them, their family, and for Pearl herself. Soon, they will be forced to contend with the native people on whose lands they live. With the ambitious governor whose soldiers hunt the girls' father. With a man who has no name but wields immense, eerie powers. With Pearl's yearning to fulfill the journey that accidentally brought her to the girls. And with their own dreams and wishes for a life they once lived-and might live again.