Eleven students and two teachers want to relive the year before the tragedy that killed them and try to change what happened. Right after they die, they arrive in Sojourn, a natural satellite located in a transitional space between their homes in Green Hills, Maine, and the First Heaven. If they stay in Sojourn, their bodies will vanish gradually, but they will reclaim them for special Earth-bound missions. While they are in Sojourn, five embodied Spirits conduct a tense courtroom trial in which they challenge the conflicting testimonies of the students about the events that precipitated the tragedy. This trial generates the background stories of the leading characters, as well as the abrasive exchanges between each of the Five Spirits and the students who are fighting to regain their lives on Earth. These stories include a student's wrongfully accusing a friend of causing a car accident that nearly killed six people; a jealous girl's dangerous plot against her rival for the love of a daring athlete; a popular group's spreading scandalous lies about a sometimes-rebellious youth and driving him into madness and crime; a Neo-Nazi's plot against a hundred students; a high school gang's attack upon an innocent girl; and a devious girl's attempt to thwart the school tragedy that she had devised. After the trial reveals the merits and wrongdoings of the group, the students and their teachers await the verdict that will decide their fates. If they are allowed to return to Earth, they must confront three perilous encounters that will determine whether they can alter their wrongdoing, prevent the tragedy that killed them, and win back the lives that they have lost. VANISHING BY DEGREES is a Young Adult/Adult Fiction Crossover. Teens from ages 13-19 and Adults from ages 20 through 95 will be drawn to the novel.