A fatal illness swept through the remaining societies, eradicating the city of Stoneham within weeks. To contain the virus and cleanse the population, the infected were banished to the outskirts of the city, left to die in the woods. Cora Edwards, one of the many infected cast from her society, experiences an alternate outcome of the illness. The story follows Cora as she struggles to gain clarity through an unlikely romance between herself and a guard, a member of society responsible for the inhumane treatment of the ill, and the memory of her past life. She struggles to move forward into a new existence.