A Secret Portal, A Double Life, And Agony in Paradise Who could have known a land of peace and promise held a doomed future? Zophie's great-grandfather discovered the portal that thrust him and fellow explorers from their homes in 1850 Portland, Oregon to a mysterious land of unfettered opportunity for brilliant minds: Zelfar. Zelfar presents a blank slate for them to create an ideal utopian society and they eagerly discard their old world and embrace their future. Fast-forward 120 years and life in Zelfar hangs by a perilous thread. The already small society will soon vanish because the population can't increase. Newborns are dying shortly after birth . . . and nobody knows why. As Zelfar's leading neo-natal physician, Zophie must find a cure. Desperate, she wonders if she could find a cure in the land they left behind on the other side of the secret portal. But stepping through the portal holds its own horrors. There lies 1971 Oregon with violence, weapons, and dangers that don't exist in Zelfar. Even so, Zophie furtively straddles both worlds, risking everything in a race against time to find a cure before it's too late . . . not only for Zelfar, but for those she loves.