Seventeen year old Crizzle Craques and other eighty persons are forced to join their city's training course. She and the other eighty participants struggle to be one of the five victors. But the training is not the same as the other years. Other city's will try to sabotage their training. The worst thing is she discovers that she is in the middle of a battle. Not just the battle between their cities. But instead a battle between her bloodline and the whole country.