It's a system that no one has ever tried to fight. When you're told that it's your time to die, it is. That's the way it's been for years. Some people get eighty years, some get ten. A simple piece of paper is the only way that you can know for certain. Ren Barron knows exactly when he is going to die, down to the minute. Ever since the banishment of the country's doctors, illnesses have run rampant, and Ren's cancer is no exception. But just when he's finally accepted that he's going to die... he doesn't. Instead, he is saved by a group of renegades, each of whom has lived past their scheduled time of death. He discovers an underground network of doctors, finds solace in a quiet boy with a troubled past, and learns that his illness may be connected to an even larger string of serial murders.