In a society built upon racism, your social class is graded by your skin color, but more often your race. Arlen Calos is considered a dirty "Darkee." She has lived with the Troy twins, Celeste and Zachary, for years after the Drought took their parents. Once society decides they don't like the example the three are setting, government agents break into their house and split the three apart. Beautiful and fair Celeste is chosen to be an apprentice in the Senate, while her twin brother Zack becomes the President's favorite as well as his successor. Arlen is left to rot in the Warzone, where the government dumps unwanted Darkees. But she's already working her way back up. Finding Celeste and Zack won't be easy, and the riddle of the Meat and the Knife darkens their paths. Sacrifice and consequence plague their decisions, and only one of them can make it out alive.