In a world where babies are rarer and more precious than diamonds, Tobin Winter has never even seen a child. When a passing peddler tells him of the rumor that babies are being born in California, Tobin leaves his small town and the only life he's ever known to set off on a quest – and find a new life. Elanna is a hopemother, one of the few women in her community able to conceive and bear a child—but never allowed to raise one. When Tobin arrives in her tight-knit world, pregnant Elanna decides to risk everything she has to keep her baby. Together, Elanna and Tobin escape the city and set out for the fabled land of golden sun. Merely days into their journey, they discover another thriving community where babies are born and raised by their mothers, a place where Elanna and Tobin are welcomed…at first. Their new friends have enemies unlike any Elanna or Tobin have ever experienced, and soon there’s no escape from the danger. For any of them.