Seraphina Rey, eager to start a new life with her girlfriend outside of her controlling parents’ home, is left devastated when an argument in Buenos Aires unleashes an unknown power, killing her partner and several others in the process. A building collapses on top of her before she manages to escape, making her fall into a short coma. When she wakes up a week later, she finds herself in a hospital in Padma, a country located in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. There, everyone has an elemental power, and they refuse to let her leave without learning how to control her own first. The more she learns about their culture, the more she discovers about herself and her past, granting her the freedom and experiences she so desperately craved to become her own person. But Padma is on the brink of war, and the people are suffering from the king’s outdated laws banning relationships between those of different powers. After becoming entangled in a relationship with the son of a rebel, Seraphina vows to aid their mission. But in the search for a way to weaken the throne, she unknowingly begins chipping away at her own family’s secrets—secrets about her parents’ involvement in the Padmeni revolution, and others about her identity and the depth of her powers. Once exposed, they risk her and everyone’s safety, simultaneously challenging everything the Padmeni know and have fought for.