Connor's parents want to be rid of him because he's a troublemaker.

Risa has no parents and is being unwound to cut orphanage costs.

Lev's unwinding has been planned since his birth as part of his family's strict religion.

Brought together by chance, and kept together through desperation, these three unlikely companions make a harrowing cross-country journey, knowing all the while that their lives are hanging in the balance.

If they can survive until their eighteenth birthdays, they can't be harmed.

But when every piece of them, from their hands to their hearts, are wanted by a world gone mad, eighteen seems far, far away...