The story opens with a car speeding away, and a frantic kittypet chasing after it.
We see that one of the Twolegs in the car is an elderly man, and he shows his companions a photo, explaining that he and his late wife owned a cat, but that they aren't allowed to have pets at the nursing home he's on his way to.
The kittypet stops, exhausted. Her name is Sasha, and she feels lost. She grew up owned by elderly Twolegs named Ken and Jean, and she loved her life: during the day she'd stay with them, and at night she'd explore outside. Then Jean grew ill, and eventually died, so it was only Sasha and Ken. Lately, however, Ken had been getting ill as well, and this morning he left with strange Twolegs, locking Sasha inside the house (she got out through a window). Sasha decides to wait by the house for him. In the evening, a neighbor, who is meant to take care of Sasha now, comes to feed her, but Sasha does not arrive. She stays outside all night, still waiting, finally realizing when the sun comes up that Ken probably isn't coming back.
She briefly meets with a kittypet friend, Shnuky, and explains the situation to her. Then she heads into the forest. Over the next few days, she settles into a den in a pile of logs, and is able to hunt for herself. One morning, she meets a rogue tom named Pine. He helps pull off her collar, and explains the difference between rogues, kittypets, and Clan cats. He shows her some scars from a fight with Clan cats, and warns her to stay away from them.
Sasha is curious about these Clan cats, and the next morning a ShadowClan patrol containing Tigerstar, Rowanpaw, and Jaggedtooth happens to stop shortly underneath the tree she's hiding in. The same patrol passes through again the next day. Rowanpaw nearly misses a frog, which Sasha catches and gives to the patrol. Tigerstar speaks to her alone shortly, introducing himself and warning her away. The next night, Sasha is hunting alone, and nearly misses a rabbit, which Tigerstar catches. They get to talking, and start meeting nightly. Sasha begins to fall in love with him.
He eventually finds her den, and her collar, and insists that she bury it and put her kittypet life behind her, leaving in disgust. She doesn't see him again until one day she gets attacked by two foxes. Tigerstar rushes in and the two of them drive the foxes away. Tigerstar is injured, however, and she invites him to spend the night in her den to recover. They continue to meet, and she decides to show him her kittypet home. He's quite uninterested in it, but he decides to show her his home - the ShadowClan camp. Sasha stays with the Clan for a day, quickly getting comfortable with lifestyle of a Clan cat.
On patrol, they run into trespassing ThunderClan warriors. The ThunderClanners call Tigerstar "traitor", so Tigerstar explains to Sasha about how he was driven out of ThunderClan because Bluestar was envious of his strength, and how he now fears that Firestar wants to rule the whole forest. As Sasha prepares to leave to go back to her den, Tigerstar asks her if she wants to join ShadowClan. She decides to think about it for a day. After an encounter with Pine, who is not looking too healthy, she makes her decision: she will join the Clan. On the way to the camp, she comes upon a meeting of warriors, with Tigerstar. She doesn't feel like interrupting, so she waits in the bushes, listening curiously. She hears him telling his senior warriors that Scourge has agreed to support him, and that taking over RiverClan is the next step. He'll use a pack of dogs to destroy ThunderClan, and then he'll be free to rule the forest.
Sasha runs away in panic. Tigerstar lied to her - he's the real enemy of the forest. She arrives at her den, forgetting that she'd planned to meet him the next day once she's made her decision. He comes along, expecting an answer: will she join ShadowClan?
Tropes appearing in this volume:
- Adaptational Ugliness: In the books, Runningnose is a fairly normal cat, just with constant sniffles that he cannot cure despite being a medicine cat. This manga volume makes him ragged and almost elderly-looking.
- Bigot with a Crush: Tigerstar is racist against kittypets (cats owned by humans) and cats who are half-Clan by birth, to the point that he wants them all dead or driven out of the Clans. Despite this, he falls in love with Sasha, a kittypet who recently lost her owner. He says that she's not like any other kittypet and guesses that her mother might be Clanborn or rogue-born, insists that she's not really one anymore anyway since she lives in the woods, and orders her to tell his Clanmates that she's a rogue and to never reveal the truth.
- Bloodless Carnage: Those squirrels and frogs and hares they kill look quite clean. The illustrator, Don Hudson, even had a scene where the editors thought that even a clean dead rabbit looked too creepy.I am working on the Cat book for Tokyopop and I am at an interesting point in the story. The story involves Feral cats and life in the wild. A Feral cat stops and kills a wild hare as described in the script. I drew the layout and it was approved, but at a certain point, the powers that be wanted a change. The dead rabbit looks too creepy. I understand that the pre-teen market may not be into dead rabbits, but why write it into the script? They wanted me to change the angle to obscure the hare, messing up the storytelling. My compromise was to turn the rabbit around, and closing his eyes. It's not dead, just sleeping! No trauma, just a sleepy, knocked out bunny. (Comparison of original and revised sketches
◊) - Broken Pedestal: Sasha is in love with Tigerstar until she finds out about his evil actions.
- A Day in the Limelight: The manga trilogy serves as Sasha's.
- Name and Name: Tigerstar and Sasha.
- A Pet into the Wild: Sasha's owner was sent to a nursing home. When she realized he wasn't coming back, she became a rogue cat.
- Scene Cover: The cover matches an actual panel from when Sasha goes hunting with ShadowClan.
- Series Continuity Error: In this book, they frequently say that Firestar is leader of ThunderClan, which suggests that it takes place during The Darkest Hour, but Tigerstar also mentions that he has a plan to lead a pack of dogs to ThunderClan, which would mean that it takes place during the middle of A Dangerous Path while Fireheart is still deputy. (It is because of the dogs, after all, that Bluestar died.)
- Stargazing Scene: As Tigerstar and Sasha grow closer, there's a scene where they cuddle while looking up at the stars, and Tigerstar tells her about StarClan, the Clans' warrior ancestors.
