The summer before Kelsey Martine begins eighth grade, an injured raven with a large vocabulary falls down the chimney of her New York City brownstone apartment! Even more remarkably, Kelsey's actress mother agrees that the raven can be installed in its own rooftop aerie. Kelsey knows it will be a special summer, shared like many others with Sam -Samantha Dawson- her best friend and downstairs neighbor. Together the girls have formed Cloakwomen, the super secret society in which they tell each other stories of being charmed heroines on horseback in an enchanted, sometimes perilous land. Thanks to the raven, Cloakwomen begins to meet on the roof, and for the first time Kelsey and Sam discover stars in the nighttime sky. But as Sylvia Peck's wonderfully textured novel unfolds, even the stars are harbingers of change, for Kelsey and Sam's friendship fractures over a boy, and Kelsey's mother falls in love. Kelsey Martine, seeking a true path through her tilting world, clings to the raven and her rooftop haven for support. But even in that near magical space, Kelsey knows she is poised on a precipice, ready to fly- or fall off.