"There's an ear-splitting crash as the first wave hurls itself at the little house, forcing open the door and gushing through the window. Angel screams. The ladder si torn away just as she jumps onto the roof beam. Water is up to her chin and she is fighting to keep her head above its churning mass. 'Papa! Papa!' She searches desperately for any sign of her father as the water sweeps her away, but he's vanished." Angel's family has seen many typhoons....

Lyla has just started her second year of high school when a magnitude 6.3 earthquake shakes Christchurch to pieces. Devastation is everywhere. While her police officer mother and trauma nurse father respond to the disaster, Lyla puts on a brave face, opening their home to neighbours and leading the community clean-up. But soon she discovers that it's not only familiar buildings and landscapes that have vanished - it's friends and acquaintances too....