With the same DNA, clones are naturally in tune with each other. Amplified by headsets, this mental resonance creates artificial telepathy with a clan. Large clans dominate society, and individual "singletons" or "indies" have become second-class citizens.
Nujent is the most powerful female clan-ruthless and hated. However, Chelsea (XII-17), age eighteen, is neither arrogant nor cruel even though raised in the Nujentville compound, near Washington, DC.
Chelsea crews Nujent's takeover of the asteroid Vesta. Karadine runs the Vesta mining station. She has an eighteen-year-old son, Thov. (Singletons invent unique names to emphasize their individuality.) Chelsea and Thov are drawn to each other before returning to Earth.
Earthside, Karadine's husband and Thov's father, Danil, joins them. Danil is a member of the anti-clone underground and was a "lab rat" in a Nujent prison.
Thov and Chelsea run into each other at the university. He tells her about living on Vesta, and she shares clonal life. Danil hates Nujent. Chelsea's clan also forbids this Romeo-and-Juliet tryst.
Chelsea's fam is scheduled for implantation of genetically enhanced Nujent ova. Also, Thov has been scheduled for mandatory indie sterilization. Chelsea wants her baby to be Thov's, and they make love. Nujent destroys Thov's embryo and implants a Nujent zygote.
Danil reveals to Thov that the experiments in Nujent's prison had to do with mind control. Nujent discovers this leak, captures Danil, and sends him to its HQ in Australia for interrogation and disposal.
Nujent also orders Thov's arrest, and he and Chelsea hide out. Nujent launches amplified psychic attacks against Chelsea, the "clone rebel."