A sixteen-year-old girl named Elspeth wakes one night to find a hatchling dragon in her father's bed. Elspeth's father, a hunter named John Fletcher, tells her she's had a bad dream, one she must not tell anyone about. Things deteriorate. The dragon reappears, each time growing in size and potency. As this happens, her father becomes increasingly angry, then violent. This is the story of their journey into family violence, and then out again. A monk...