In the not-too-distant future, Leadership controls everything and everyone, and a new regulation threatens to take away 13-year-old Wren's little brother. Already reeling from her grandmother's relocation, Wren must give up school, her friends, and the protection of her parents to save her little brother from the cold grip of efficiency. Can Wren and her brother survive the exhausting journey, the scorching desert, and the threatening grasp of Leadership to cross the border to safety and freedom?