Elena lived in a world that was simply disgusting and dangerous because everything is completely corrupted, if you do something that the dictator disliked, he will send you to Anathema. Anathema is a huge maze that will kill you in seconds, it's full of dangerous creatures that are physically modified to kill everything, specially people. The people in Caligino (where Elena lives) are simply dying because of hunger and diseases, all women will just give life to kids and cook, and all men will be trained to serve in the army and also to be physically and mentally proved, for example, they will se what happens if they mix a bear, crocodile, bee, fish and monkey cells with human cells and see what happens. But that's not the worst, the only person that women can marry and have children with, is the dictator. And guess who broke the law and you know they where sent to.... I think I said too much about this but read every page, you will get amazed with every single word of how, when, and who survived Anathema.