The novel revolves around a young girl named Lucinda "Luce" Price who is sent to Sword & Cross Reform School in Savannah, Georgia, after she is accused of murdering a boy by starting a fire.

At the reform school, she meets Daniel, a handsome boy whom she feels inexplicably drawn to, and believes that she has already met before.

[1][2][3][4] Luce is sent to 'Sword and Cross', a reform school for young adults, after she is blamed for the death of Trevor, another student.

Cam offers to guide Luce to her dorm room, but is abruptly interrupted by Arriane, a self-described psychopath with long black hair.

Before her first class, Luce notices a tall, handsome boy across the grounds who she feels she somehow recognizes.

She wakes up in the hospital the next day, and Gabbe tells her that Daniel that carried her out of the fire, but Todd did not survive.

A battle between the angels breaks out, and the school librarian, Miss Sophia, leads Luce and Penn (the only other mortal) to safety.

Miss Sophia reveals herself to be one of the 24 Elders of Zhsmaelim, a radical heavenly sect that is interested in finally tipping the balance between good and evil by making Daniel choose a side.

Daniel informs Luce that she must be taken somewhere safe and entrusts her to Mr. Cole, one of the teachers at the school who knows about the fallen angels.

Luce is transported away by an airplane after sharing one final kiss with Daniel, who promises that he will see her soon.

Other characters include Mr Cole, who is one of the teachers to actually know about the Fallen Angels at the school, Luce's parents (who are clueless about Luce's past lives) and Annabelle, Arianne's sister, another Fallen Angel who chose the side of God.

Also released on January 24, 2012, was a side novel Fallen In Love which settles between the settings of Passion and Rapture.

[6] A film based on the novel, starring Addison Timlin, Jeremy Irvine, Harrison Gilbertson, and Joely Richardson, was released November 10, 2016.