Cora Catlin is a misfit at best, and an outcast at worst. She feels out of place, as if everything is backward and something is missing from her life.  Her well-meaning mother tries to force her unstylish physique into new school clothes while the school bullies look on and laugh. She is picked on at school and dreads the start of a new year. Her loving father fills Cora’s emotional void with sweets and ill-conceived support, leaving Cora in a tug-of-war between her parents and within herself.

And then, on her first day of middle school, everything changes when, while taking a shortcut through the woods, Cora encounters an elfin stranger who speaks to her of the magical world of Clouden, an entire kingdom hidden up in the sky. This is the kingdom, he tells her, of her real parents and where she truly belongs.

Cora can't wait to leave her boring, humdrum life behind. As she travels to her new home, where children sprout from the ground and rivers flow with chocolate, she finds herself transformed on the outside to the beautiful girl she has always been inside. And if that weren't enough, she has to adjust to royal parents, a talking Pegasus, a raging war, and an alluring love interest as well.

Exploring this new land, Cora unearths wonders and secrets beyond her wildest imaginings, discovering the meaning of true friendship, love, and what it means to feel whole in the clouds.