"It's the morning of Maisie's tenth birthday, and she can't wait to open her presents. Maisie is not a typical kid. What she wants most for her birthday are the things she needs to build her own nuclear reactor. But she wakes to an empty house, and outside the front door is nothing but an unsettling, all-consuming blackness--a shifted reality. Even for super-smart Maisie, these puzzling circumstances seem out of her control... or are they?"--Page [2] of cover.