Night lasts a thousand hours. Forty sleeps--an endless desert of time when no one cares what happens to you until day. Helene has given up. Only concern for her sister's grave medical condition tethers her to the world she dreams of escaping through death. If only she could bring herself to end it. Caught out at night getting medicine for her sister, Helene is captured and taken as a slave for Gabriel, the mysterious ruler of the city. "Helene, I will take your struggle away. I will bring you back to life."