People need to be monitored, or they'll repeat the mistakes of the Desolation, a centuries-old war that killed billions of people and destroyed civilization. Skye is part of the Society, the hi-tech, nanite-endowed group responsible for making sure that the millions of surviving people—grubbers—are confined to the ancient, decaying cities where they can be watched to ensure they aren't redeveloping the weapons technology that came so close to extinguishing life on the planet. When the Society's monitoring programs pick up troubling developments in one of the grubber cities, Skye is ordered in to deal with the man responsible, but what—and who—she finds once she arrives will change everything.

They armored Skye's body and taught her how to kill, but didn't do anything to shield her heart. They injected her with nanites to make her faster and stronger, but that didn't make her ready to meet Brennan. She arrived expecting to find a despot—heir to a failed system of thinking—and instead found a visionary intent on rebuilding the world. Now, with Skye's masters poised to destroy Brennan's city, she will be forced to turn her skills against the very people who trained her. Only she can save the man she loves and the dream he's trying to realize, but doing so may very well destroy her.