On her 17th birthday, Ashen Spencer is blindfolded and escorted to the massive, mysterious building known as the Arc to begin her year of training and testing in hopes that she can earn the Cure - a powerful drug given only to those deemed worthy to survive beyond their 18th birthday. Ashen has a chance to rise up from her former life of squalor and be granted a place in society, if the Panel - the mysterious group of powerful men and women in charge of the Arc - deems her year a success. 

Water is scarce. Deserts have taken over the land. Nuclear war has devastated humanity. Humans live in walled super cities to keep out the irradiated. The land that was formerly known as America is divided into kingdoms ruled by royal elites. Born into the lowest Echelon of the Kingdom of Phangloria, 16-year-old Zea Calico faces a life of hunger, thirst, and toil. The only way out of this drudgery is revolution, and Zea is desperate to help the cause.

In a secret facility called the Processor, Kress and her fellow Recruits are subjected to endless weapons training, violent puzzles, dangerous war games, deadly escape rooms, and impossible Virtual Reality simulations. In the end, they’ll get answers to questions they’ll wish they never asked.

Every year, a lottery is held for the hard-working people of Lutum. The prize? Eternal life. And everyone wants it. Well, everyone except for 17-year-old Silverstasia Blackwood. She doesn't think it's fair that the rich get to live luxurious lives while the people of Lutum are enslaved, forced to work hard every day to support the immortals.

In the year 2043, with the nation destroyed by war, 17-year-old Kress and her conspiracy of friends embark on a dangerous cross-country mission to locate and recruit other Emergents, the name given to teenagers who have begun to exhibit strange evolutionary abilities. Not all Emergents are ready to accept who and what they are, however, and some have even started using their abilities for selfish or evil ends. Now Kress has to figure out who is friend and who is foe as she risks everything to expose the government’s lies and take down the tyrannical President Krug once and for all.