There aren't many comforts at Anathema's school. Only those who test highest on the Psychopath Scale get in, and though the government's experiment with the water supply decades ago left the entire population with limited empathy, these students are exceptionally suited for the role for which they're being groomed. With no family, and with friendship a foreign concept, Anathema finds solace only in how gifted she is at learning the art of death and in the few moments she can get alone with a long-gone student’s journal that she’s discovered hidden in her room. As the days tick closer to the culmination of her studies, or "Kill Slip Day," the mysteries within the journal begin to contaminate Anathema’s reality. For the first time, she begins to question both the role that's been chosen for her and the value of her own life. As the past comes into sharper focus, the real game Anathema's playing is revealed, and everyone at the school presents a deadly hurdle to her ever being able to escape the Prep School for Serial Killers.