On an Earth which has been free of war, pollution, and poverty for decades, Alishel's biggest worries are perfecting the art of the holosculpture and pestering her dad to finally get a Monitor like everyone else. Her life is shattered in one week by a series of revelations.

Her friend Dembe hacks into a government site and shows her a picture of a war atrocity recently committed on Earth's sister planet Biome. Her father becomes violently sick. When a government agent begins questioning Alishel, her father reluctantly reveals that her existence itself is illegal. She was genetically engineered by the government agency which is responsible for Biome's state of constant war.

Now the government wants to reclaim Alishel for their program. She and her father must escape to Biome. There, she will learn the price of Earth's perfection.