Olive Rogers is a twelve year old girl who, along with her twin brother Oliver, is sent to an unknown boarding school called Ancestors' Academy. Everything goes wrong from day one but Olive cannot do anything about it except wait and hope that things will become better she. She is followed by the ghost of a girl named Jen who had died in school while on punishment. Soon Olive discovers that Jen is not the only one who died in that fashion and what makes it even worse is that they all died in the same place the sewing room.
At one glance Ancestors' Academy looks like a school that is run by medieval fanatics but on the inside it is a horrifying place where children lose their personalities to become a copy of the headmistress those who do not comply are killed in gruesome ways that are unimaginable. Join Olive in her journey of 5 years surviving Ancestors' Academy while trying to maintain her own personality as well as her brother's.