The Earth’s lakes and oceans are mostly gone, and grass has been replaced with red sand. Humans survive their inhospitable environment by living together in huge cement compounds. Survive, that is, if they aren’t crippled by a degenerative disease that plagues the world.
Sixteen year-old Nora Watson wants only to get by until her eighteenth birthday, when she’ll be considered an adult. Then she’ll move away from her home compound of Nu, to the Central Government, where she plans to become a scientist. Her plans are derailed by two men.