A single mother marries her handyman in early 1900s California and they start a family. This provokes resentment in her daughter, Lotti, who plots revenge. Eventually, dressed as a boy, she runs away, abducting her new stepbrother.

The Secret City, hidden high in a mountain range, harbors a handful of aliens stranded on Earth, waiting for rescue and running out of time. Over years of increasing poverty, an exodus to the human world has become their only chance for survival. The aliens are gradually assimilating, not as a discrete culture, but rather as a source of cheap labor. But the sudden arrival of ill-prepared rescuers will touch off divided loyalties, violent displacement, and star-crossed love. As unlikely human allies are pitted against xenophobic aliens, the stage is set for a final standoff at the Secret City.