Heartache and toil are the only companions Otter has ever known. With no memory of the parents who abandoned her as a baby, she might just be the only child in the whole dismal town of Junkton without an imaginary friend of her own. Growing up in a factory hardly equipped her to imagine a decent friend, and Otter has vowed never to create an imaginary one until she can make it perfect.

After a daring escape from under her captors' noses, Otter sets off on a wondrous and treacherous odyssey into the world beyond Junkton. When a misplaced step seems to doom Otter's journey, a strange girl named Cherry intervenes to save her. As the girls grow closer, Otter begins to hope she has found a real friend every bit as perfect as any she could have imagined. But Cherry has a dark secret, and it might just spell the end for Otter's journey, her newfound friendship, and maybe even her life.