After losing her parents and surviving The Reckoning, a catastrophic earthquake that nearly destroyed all of North America, against all odds, young Thecla survived on her own in the remains of the destruction, known as The Wastelands. Seven years later, now a fiercely, self-trained warrior and hunter-gatherer, Thecla is suddenly introduced into a new order of civilization known as Carpathia, a pious community where the prominent Bishop Kato governs. As her morals are challenged and innocence slowly falls by the wayside, Thecla quickly discovers that her survival skills and instincts that kept her alive in the brutal, wild and untamed Wastelands is no match for her new life in Carpathia.