Kidnapped and taken to a huge, world-spanning library, Claire Mathis is shocked to discover the truth about her own life. Thrust into the heart of a battle for the library's fate, she quickly learns that the powerful Forbidders will stop at nothing in order to gain the one object they prize above all others. While the Forbidders wreak havoc, however, a great danger is edging closer. The darkness is reaching out across the void, threatening to destroy this world just as it has already destroyed countless others. As he tries to save the library, a tired soldier named Vanguard finally sees the truth and realizes that there's only one way for the library to be rescued from destruction.