To stop the evil corporation Nightrise from unleashing its devastating power around the globe, fifteen-year-old Matt and three other Gatekeepers travel to Hong Kong to find Scarlet, the final Gatekeeper, whose fate is inextricably joined to their own.

When her father and sisters are threatened with being sent to the poorhouse for failing to collect a rare orchid, responsible eldest daughter Elodie Buchanan accompanies her father to China in the hope of collecting the valuable flower only to have her perspective changed by the exotic outside world.

While racing through the Gobi Desert in China and Mongolia, the author, a seasoned ultramarathoner, encounters a stray dog who, keeping pace with him for nearly 80 miles, gives him a new perspective on life, causing him to fight to bring her home with him with the help of strangers and a viral outpouring of assistance on the internet.