After surviving alone on Noise for years, Bastian and Theo are exhilarated and terrified by the thriving chaos of Central. Even in the middle of civilization, they stand apart, bound together by their years of isolation. Central is their chance to change that and find the ordinary lives they never knew on Noise. Long, lonely days struggling to survive are firmly in their past. But the present holds conflicts of its own, and if Bastian and Theo hope to survive to enjoy their new lives, they may have to return to the hard ways of their difficult past …