Kat O'Malley is living the nine lives of a cat and having a horrible time. After four hundred years on the wrong side of prejudice, intolerance, poverty and even witch hunts, all she really wants to do with her fifth life is hide out on a mirage with a bunch of cats.Everything is fine until a man wanders into Kat's mirage. When he hears her story, he convinces her to put her rotten experience to good use as a history teacher at a nearby school, where he's the headmaster. Skeptical at first, Kat takes him up on the offer. She lives a double-life, spending a few days a week teaching underdog history lessons that never made it into the books and then slipping back to her hidden oasis, hoping no one will follow.But one of her students does follow her, and when tragedy strikes, Kat is caught up in the nightmares of her past once again. She must ultimately decide whether to retreat forever into the safety of her cat-filled mirage or embrace the new life she's created and the one person who knows her secret.