Somethingβs happening to the girls on Denton Street.Itβs the summer of 1980 in Cleveland, Ohio, and Phoebe Shaw and her best friend Jacqueline have just graduated high school, only to confront an ugly, uncertain future. Across the city, abandoned factories populate the skyline; meanwhile at the shore, one strong spark, and the Cuyahoga River might catch fire. But none of that compares to whatβs happening in their own west side neighborhood. The girls Phoebe and Jacqueline have grown up with are changing. It starts with footprints of dark water on the sidewalk. Then, one by one, the girlsβ bodies wither away, their fingernails turning to broken glass, and their bones exposed like corroded metal beneath their flesh.As rumors spread about the grotesque transformations, soon everyone from nosy tourists to clinic doctors and government men start arriving on Denton Street, eager to catch sight of βthe Rust Maidensβ in metamorphosis. But even with all the onlookers, nobody can explain whatβs happening or whyβexcept perhaps the Rust Maidens themselves. Whispering in secret, they know more than theyβre telling, and Phoebe realizes her former friends are quietly preparing for something that will tear their neighborhood apart.Alternating between past and present, Phoebe struggles to unravel the mystery of the Rust Maidensβand her own unwitting role in the transformationsβbefore she loses everything sheβs held dear: her home, her best friend, and even perhaps her own body.