Seventeen-year-old Mattie is obsessed with Harry Houdini and Dorothy Dietrich, but she doesn't want anyone to know. She doesn't even tell her best friend Stella, let alone anyone from her high school. After Stella leaves to attend boarding school for the summer, Mattie isn't sure how to spend her time, and all of her anxieties come to a head. After a night of heavy drinking at a local speakeasy, she finally decides to indulge her interests and seeks out the reclusive Miyu, who is the daughter of a famed escapologist, and convinces her to train Mattie in the art of escapology.
When Will, a popular jock from Mattie's high school, accidentally stumbles into one of Mattie's escape performances, she's sure that he will spill her secret and send her world crumbling down. But he has a secret of his own, and no one saw it coming.
