In the midst of a warring America resides a community founded on uniformity. From the day they were created, every inhabitant of the community was promised a life of eternal happiness; all desires of theirs would be fulfilled without question. Well, except one. Sixteen year-old Perri Bennett desperately craves an escape from the community. She would dig her way out of there if she could. If, for all except one day out of the month, her mind didn't take over and tell her that she loved it there. If, Perri wasn't one of the Cleansed. When a catastrophic situation threatens the uniformity of the community, Perri must make the ultimate sacrifice and abandon all she knows in exchange for the opportunity to explore what life was like outside the walls of her home over 20 years before the community, or Perri, ever existed.