Sixteen-year-old Jin, a refugee in Ba Sing Se, navigates a dangerous underworld to save her best friend Susu from a brainwashing conspiracy run by the Earth King's enforcers.

"There is no war outside of these walls. This is what the citizens of Ba Sing Se are told to believe, but Jin knows better. As a refugee whose parents were killed by the Fire Nation, she is haunted by her past. Now, she does her best to keep her head down in the Lower Ring, caring for her ailing grandfather and balancing school with survival. Her one bright spot is her best friend Susu, whose family treats Jin like one of their own, and whose bakery she helps make deliveries for. Her world shatters when Susu's father gambles away the bakery and Susu is forced to take a contract in the Upper Ring to pay off the family's debt. Jin vows to help her friend--no matter what it takes. A chain of events fueled by her desperate promise leads Jin to Xuan, an arrogant boy from the Middle Ring with ties to the Silver Fangs, a major player in the city's black market. The deeper Jin delves into her double life, the more she learns about Susu's own entanglement in a conspiracy darker and more dangerous than she could have imagined. As whispers swirl of the Avatar's presence within the city's walls, the Fire Nation creeps ever closer. With Ba Sing Se teetering on the brink of revolution, Jin must defy the powerful forces that control her city and risk everything for the friend she's determined to save." --