After discovering she is a Shadowhunter and that her mother had lied to her for the greater part of her life, Clarissa Fray is avoiding her new-found brother and the world he represents. Clary stays with Luke, her werewolf godfather, in his home while her mother is in the hospital in a coma. Simon, Clary's best friend, has professed his feelings, and the two try out a relationship of something more than friendship; somewhat unsettling for Clary as she still has feelings for Jace (her long lost brother).
Clary's silence is unsettling for Jace--he is torn between how he should care for his younger sister and how he does care for her. He begins to hunt demons to take the edge off, rather than because it is his job, and the Lightwood children begin to worry. Things escalate when Isabelle and Alec's mother Maryse Lightwood returns and banishes him from the institute.
Leaving the Institute, Jace goes to a downworlder bar where he picks a fight with Luke's werewolf pack. When one of the Lycanthrope children is attacked by a mysterious figure, the pack calls on Jace to help. When Jace refuses, wallowing in self-pity for being kicked out of his only home and Clary's silence, Luke intervenes and stops the pack from murdering him. Luke convinces Clary to talk to Jace and the two convince him to return to the Institute and speak to Maryse.
The Shadowhunter's Inquisitor comes to investigate Jace's involvement with Valentine at the end of City of Bones. She is a cold woman and shows an extreme dislike for Jace from the get-go, when Jace's arrogance angers her, the Inquisitor locks him in cells in the underground Silent City of the Silent Brothers. While he is there, Valentine steals the Soul-Sword of Raziel the Angel using a fear demon to kill the Silent Brothers. Coupled with the murder and draining of several downworlder children, Jace, Clary, Simon, Isabelle, and Alec piece together Valentine's plan to turn the Sword against the Nephilim and give it power over demons.
In their quest to rally aid, the group enters the faery realm. Jace and Clary discover their father had done something to give his unborn children special capabilities, though the two deny anything special. When she is tricked into eating some of the fairy food, Clary is nearly trapped, but the queen offers her freedom at the "kiss she most desires." Simon thinks the kiss is from him, but it is when Jace kissed Clary that she is freed. The turn of events causes a rift between Simon and Clary, who had been becoming closer and closer.
Simon storms away when they return to the human realm, only to be brought to the Institute by Raphael, the leader one one of New York's vampire clans. Simon had ingested some vampire blood during his time as a rat, and when he broke into the vampire nest, Raphael's clan attacked him and began the process of turning him. They bury Simon and watch the transformation of his vampire re-birth. Clary and Simon begin rebuilding their relationship and Clary gives up her contact with Jace as penance for her part in Simon's new status. While they're trying to figure out how to tell his mother, Maia (one of Luke's pack) is attacked on Luke's front lawn. Clary calls the Shadowhunters and Magnus Bane to heal her, but Luke is injured when the demons sent after Maia catch him and Magnus must help him as well. Jace and Clary hurry to Luke's rescue and fight his assailants, who flee when they catch a glimpse of the Mark Clary recieved from her mother in a dream.
When the two return to the house talk turns to Clary's use of the runes: the opening rune she used in the Silent City was much too strong to be a simple opening rune, yet it was. She puts forth the idea that her special ability was the ability to put more power into the runes than they possessed on their own, and to create new runes. Clary creates a "fearless" rune and the group tests it on Alec, who declares to the world that he is dating someone, but Magnus silences him when he begins to say who. Alec wakes and is defensive, claiming not to remember anything--a sign the rune worked.
They decide to turn in for the night while Maia and Luke heal, but Jace sneaks away on Raphael's demonic motorcycle to meet with Valentine on a ship in the middle of the river. He promises Jace not to kill his loved ones if Jace will return to him, but Jace refuses. When he returns to the other Shadowhunters, the Inquisitor accuses him of siding with Valentine and threatens to kill him if Valentine doesn't return the Mortal Cup and Soul Sword. Jace tells her his father won't make the trade, but the Inquisitor insists a father's love will trump his desire for power--she hopes to take revenge for the death of her child.
Maia leaves Luke's home, but on her way to visit Simon, the fear demon attacks her and brings her to Valentine. Meanwhile, Valentine comes for Simon. Clary, Luke, Jace, and Magnus go after Maia and Simon and manage to rescue Maia. But when Jace finds Simon, he has already been drained of blood. Jace allows Simon to drink from him and restore his life, then joins the fray on the ship's deck. The Inquisitor and New York's Shadowhunters join the battle against Valentine's demon army. The Inquisitor stops Jace in the middle of the battle, and is surprised when she sees a star-shaped scar on his shoulder. She nearly immediately gives her life for him causing him to question her change of heart.
When Clary is kidnapped by one of Valentine's demons, Jace follows. Valentine declares he knows Jace joined the fight against him because of his not-quite-brotherly feelings for Clary, revealing that he knows the fear demon took her form at their first encounter. In return Jace tells Valentine that their second encounter ended with the demon's death in the form of Valentine himself. Jace gets Clary's stele to her, allowing her to blow the ship apart at the seams and end the battle.
Clary falls into the river, to be plucked out by nixies sent by the Faery queen. They return to shore where dawn is quickly coming. Simon discovers that Jace's blood allows him to survive the daylight, unlike his fellow vampires, and life returns to some semblance of normal. Luke and Clary discuss his feelings for her mother, and Clary convinces Luke that it's beyond time to reveal those feelings to Jocelyn, despite her comatose state. She follows a similar path with Jace, but before she can tell him, Jace says he will only love her like a brother, breaking her heart. Befoer she can process the hurt, however, one of Clary's mother's companions from Idris says she knows how to wake Jocelyn.
Throughout the battles and tangled love connections, Clary Fray learns to deal with her new-found family, especially the strange feelings she has for her brother. Her story is one of self-discovery and learning to take control of her own life, she fights for what she believes in and uses what power she has discovered to care for those who she loves. Clary is a role model for any young woman to take as an example; though her relationship with Jace is questionable, there are hints of life not being quite as it seems. Clare's City of Ashes is a vivid read and plays into the supernatural genre well. An ideal audience are high school aged readers, like the main characters, however any lover of supernatural fiction will find something enjoyable in the telling.
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