The novel is told from different character perspectives with an omniscient narration, but the most of the narrative is told from the River Valley School headmistress February’s side and from the viewpoint of Charlie, the new student at school. River Valley School for Deaf students is a last resort for the students who have been neglected, or simply their needs misunderstood by their parents. The school is existing on a shaky ground, constantly at risk from closure for financial reasons.
The novel opens up with the introduction of the headmistress February, who is a hearing person raised by two deaf parents, and who learned to be empathetic and towards the system of neglect of proper education for deaf children. It opens up with three of her students missing from school, the reasons unknown, and the entirety of Colson police forces are searching for them.
The novel continues on with a six-month jump into the past, and it introduces Charlie, a deaf girl raised by hearing parents. From early on in her life, Charlie was forced to wear a hearing aid, learn the English language and prevented from learning the ASL, or the sign language. This isolation from a language that is supposed to be natural for her caused her to be frustrated and isolated, and a problematic child for her mother. After their parents’ recent divorce, and her father getting the custody of her, she came to River Valley to finally catch up with what she’s been missing her entire life: sign language, but also the history and culture of deaf people.
Austin, on the other hand, is considered somewhat of a deaf royalty at the River Valley School. Born to a deaf mother, whose entire side of the family nurtured the deaf culture and a hearing father who adapted to that culture, he was raised with a sense of pride in his existence as a deaf person rather than deafness being a hindrance. Everything changes for Austin after his mother gives birth to a hearing girl. He is angry at his father’s reaction and feels betrayed, which sets off a rebellious phase. He is also fascinated by Charlie, the new girl at school, who lived a completely different life to his, and that difference brings them closer.
On the other hand, February is dealing with a loss of her mother, who dies shortly after she takes her to a care-taking home because of dementia, and the truth about the River Valley School imminent closure which will leave many of the students at the mercy of their non-accepting families and education systems that are not suited to help them thrive in life.
The novel culminates with a rebellious idea from Charlie, who, exhausted from her parents’ non-acceptance of her and the pressure to go through another surgery for a hearing aid, despite the previous almost killing her, together with Eliot and Austin, escape school to go to Charlie’s friend Slash. They plan to set fire to an Edge Bionics Plant responsible for faulty hearing aids. February manages to prevent her students’ involvement in this, but Slash follows through with it. The novel ends with a text exchange and an idea for graffiti between Charlie and Austin that says “silence is golden”.
