An orphanage headmistress is snatched saving a child from a dragon, and the world believes her dead and eaten. For centuries, Gascony's top predators have treated humankind as easy prey. But Isodore's misery has only begun. On a lonely ledge high in the Pyrénées, where even the famed dragonslayers won't go, she comes to terms with the nature of dragons, her fate in her captor's hands, and her own dark secret. A child survivor of a dragon's wrath, she has relied on her wits to stay alive. But it's compassion that gives that life meaning: stirring a warrior's idealism, breaching class divisions, and sustaining love for an outcast. On Dragon's Ridge, Isodore's struggle brings the two virtues into conflict. She placates her captor to plot her escape, unaware that the plan will cost her a part of herself she can never get back.