After her father has a premonition, Thea, her parents, and her little sister move to the Bloodless Valley of southern Colorado, hoping to make a fresh start. On their remote farm, they will “unschool”: take nature hikes, help with the animals, and learn outside. But soon her parents don’t have time to teach the girls, and forbid Thea and her sister from going to the library, not wanting to “poison” them with the internet or books. Thea learns the reason her parents could afford to buy land—sight unseen—is because nothing will grow without a fight.

To make ends meet, her parents let her work at the café in town, and there she meets Ray, who is deaf and spends summers in the valley. Thea was born partially deaf, but all her family is hearing, and her father has always told her she needs to just be like everyone else, to pass and pretend. But Ray—the first other deaf teen Thea has ever met—knows how to sign. When he starts teaching Thea in secret, she begins to learn what she has been missing, not only language but community.

Thea begins spending her days with Ray, going deep into the valley to meet its other residents, artists and outcasts—and it is there that she connects the Dust Bowl from history and warnings from scientists with the weather she’s living through. The days are hotter than ever. The river is drying up, crops are dying. History may be repeating itself, as the black blizzards of Colorado have returned. And her father isn’t the only one who has dreams.