Arthur Oakes is a reader, a dreamer, and a student at Rackham College, Maine. But his idyll --- and burgeoning romance with Gwen Underfoot --- is shattered when a local drug dealer and her partner corner him into one of the worst crimes he can imagine: stealing rare books from the college library. Trapped and desperate, Arthur turns to his closest friends for comfort and help. Together they dream up a wild, fantastical scheme to free Arthur from the cruel trap in which he finds himself. Wealthy, irrepressible Colin Wren suggests using the unnerving Crane journal (bound in the skin of its author) to summon a dragon to do their bidding. But there’s nothing simple about dealing with dragons, and their pact to save Arthur becomes a terrifying bargain in which they must choose a new sacrifice for King Sorrow every year --- or become his next meal.