It is some years since a virus killed all the adults. Now Sicily lies in ruins while the disease lies in wait, poised to claim the children as they reach adolescence. Brave, stubborn thirteen-year-old Anna looks after her brother Astor in the cottage where their mother's skeleton rests, lovingly decorated, in a locked bedroom. She tells him fearsome stories about monsters, hoping to keep him safe at home while she forages among the real hazards. Wild dogs. Gangs of savage, blue-painted kids. But then Astor starts to question Anna's version of the world, just as the blue kids are turning their attention to the cottage-and suddenly, everything will change.
