The gargoyle police officer Demetria Stone once again leaves her comfortable desk in the MirrorSide Bureau of Investigation to hit the mean streets of Portland--hot in pursuit of an evil ring of child-trafficking criminals. But this time, she has the added distraction of playing den mother to a bluster of adolescent Air Elementals on their first ever trip to the surface world. Somehow, she had been chosen to participate in their Rite of Passage called a "Grounding", despite the fact that she is neither prepared nor equipped to facilitate such an event. In The Cloud Children, Demetria faces some of her worst nightmares as she stumbles along, always one step behind the bad guys.