After a car accident, high school senior Ember McWilliams has the gift of touch that makes everything die. She meets Hayden Cromwell who claims her curse is a gift and can help her control it, but Ember doesn't trust Hayden's adopted father, believing he has sinister reasons for collection children whose abilities are, well, weird. But Ember would like to be able to hold her sister's hand and to be able to kiss Hayden. But when Ember learns the accident that turned her into a freak may not have been an accident, she's not sure who to trust. Someone wanted her dead, and the closer she gets to the truth, the closer she is to losing not only her heart, but her life. For real this time. -- Adapted from the jacket.