Ellie must choose between a life of wealth and greatness or her own forbidden love. Her choice will change the world. Ellie learns the poppet trade, her family business isn’t as harmless as everyone led her to believe. With the help of a boy from the wilds named Moze, she tries to change the tragic system from within. When she fails, she must flee or her beloved Thom Poppet will be murdered to teach her a lesson.

Ellie and Thom escape up the Mizzourah River alone through Grave Hawker controlled Wilds to try to reach safety in the Kansas territory. Along the way, her former “bestie” Sasha and Simon "Red Boots" Eregel, the Grand Wizard of the Grave Hawkers hunt her. The Academy didn't prepare Ellie for life running up river. Good thing Thom is way more than the meat machine butler they told her he was. At the same time, Moze makes it to Liberty-Lawrence with important intel. He joins the revolution against DesLoge Com and USNOAM's poppet-based economy. He agrees with the Free Kaw Army that Poppet trade must end even if they have to fight a war, but he wonders if they aren’t just as bad as the Grave Hawkers when he sees how poppets are treated. Ellie and Moze hope to find each other again. They want to save the world from poppetry. Too bad three hundred miles and an army of violent Hawkers stand between them and their goals. "With this, the first book in her Poppet Cycle, Donna J. W. Munro has transcended the zombie genre to create something unique, strange, and disturbingly relevant. Think Dawn of the Dead chewing into The Handmaid's Tale ." - Lisa Morton, six-time Bram Stoker Award winner "Munro’s novel will leave an indelible memory in your brain, and awaken you to the power of genre storytelling. Revelation launches an excellent new cycle that readers young and old alike will adore!" -Michael Arnzen, author of Grave Markings