It's graduation day for sixteen-year-old Malencia Vale & the entire Five Lakes Colony (the former Great Lakes) is celebrating All Cia can think about-hope for-is whether she'll be chosen for The Testing a United Commonwealth program that selects the best & brightest new graduates to become possible leaders of the slowly revitalizing post-war civilization When Cia is chosen her father finally tells her about his own nightmarish half-memories of The Testing Armed with his dire warnings (Cia trust no one) she bravely heads off to Tosu City far away from friends & family perhaps forever