2029. The Nation confines its citizens in safe high-density city Zones to protect them from the violent Outlaws who live in the Wastelands. Citizens are controlled by the Omago, a covert empire of the mind orchestrated by the global state. Many who are confused by the lurking anger in their subconscious take the cheap wonder drug, bred, that induces a sense of contented numbness. But Noah Rivers takes no drugs and, as he begins his sophomore year, a series of troubling events shatters the shell around his mind. As an epidemic of mental illness disrupts the Omago and Noah’s brilliant brother descends into psychosis, a window to the past is opened to him by the mysterious owner of a reviled bookshop and he is haunted by words from the forgotten dead. While Noah struggles to help his brother, he is confronted with the brutal truth about The Nation and embarks on a grueling personal journey to strive for a better future.