At Keziah Christian Academy, a boarding school in Swaziland, sixteen-year-old Adele Joubert is one of the top girls. She’s well-mannered, a good student and, most importantly, has a white father who can pay her school fees. But on the bus back to Keziah after holiday break, Adele discovers she’s been replaced by a new top girl – one whose father is wealthier than her own. Worse still, Adele now has to share a room with Lottie Diamond, a poor outcast who likes to fight and doesn’t follow the rules. Soon Adele is forced to make a choice: betray Lottie to regain her social status or forge ahead with her new friend and become an outcast herself. But before Adele can decide, tragedy strikes the school, and the two girls find themselves investigating the suspicious circumstances of a classmate’s disappearance.