Overpopulation throttles the world's food supply. In 2050, the government of the Americas introduces the Food Crisis Act—new measures that create a system for growing and rationing food. Calla Ryan is pretty much your average teen, except for enduring hunger every day of her life. One morning, new sensors at her high school determine that she exceeds the weight limit of the State, and they send her north to a "fat camp" or re-education centre. Calla begins to realize the centre holds many secrets. Her counsellor dies mysteriously, and new shipments of recruits are the picture of health. Finally, Calla becomes a guinea pig for a dangerous lab experiment. On the outside, a virus that began overseas has now made its way to the Americas with deadly consequences. Calla must run from her captors, escaping to the far north with help from the facility's chef and fellow inmates Billy and Madge. And to complicate things, the infected are very hungry.