For hundreds of years in Reddenbery, the townspeople regularly hide to avoid human sacrifice to aliens called the Kharals, but when teenager Harbo Jones wants to enlist old flame Nelihi Davies in his rebellion against the slaughter, she must choose between following the old ways of hiding and joining her lover against subterranean aliens and the town’s corrupt leadership.

SYNOPSIS:

Nelihi Davies gave up her teen love Harbo Jones years ago to her best friend Alisel Craig. But when Harbo and Alisel sneak out past the barrier in a forbidden search to learn more about the murderous aliens who take human sacrifices every nine months, she is torn between alerting her uncle and keeping quiet about the others' mission.

Against the rules in Reddenbery, during this trip out, Harbo and Alisel make love, and everything changes again, so Nelihi retreats into the fold of her family--her Grandma, the town seamstress who wants her to take over the sewing boutique, and her Uncle Jacquamo, the town's Hiding Instructor who teaches classes about staying safe during Kharals harvests.

After this, Alisel's father, head of the town leadership called The Mayorals, eliminates much of the town's preparation runs for hiding and socializes the idea that self-protection doesn't change results, alienating Nelihi's Uncle Jacquamo, but as opposing factions in the town try to rally their forces for taking on the Kharals and breaking the centuries old agreement.

Soon, Alisel's dad Tom Craig, to negotiate a marriage and a truce. But when Harbo insists that Nelihi, whom he still loves, make good her promise to go outside the barrier with him before they come of age, she instead shows him the Kharals tunnels under the town and remembers why her heart was broken when he left her.

After he marries Alisel, Harbo is shown the Mayorals' secret bunkers that explain why they don't care about the hiding practice and reveals the Mayorals' treachery to Uncle Jacquamo, who instigates the town rebels flooding these bunkers just before the next harvest. Despite strained relations, Nelihi and Harbo continue to connect and explore, looking for the elusive Kharals, but when Alisel has the baby, Nelihi insinuates it was conceived well before the first trip out, and Harbo learns Alisel was raped by her father. Meanwhile, Nelihi tries to salvage her broken relationship with her Uncle Jacquamo, who lives in terror about what will come next, so Nelihi swears never to leave town again but exits her hiding cabinet during the next harvest, bringing more tragic consequences as the Kharals, huge insect beasts, are drawn by her movements at her window and take her Uncle Jacquamo while the battle rages between the rebels and Mayorals, leaving no townsperson unscathed in the aftermath--and exposing the Kharals as the only and most ethical beings in town.