New York Los Angeles & Washington D.C. have been abandoned. The Bill of Rights has been revoked & replaced with the Moral Statutes. There are no more police
- instead there are soldiers. There are no more fines for bad behaviour
- instead there are arrests trials & maybe worse. People who get arrested usually dont come back. Seventeen-year-old Ember Miller is old enough to remember that things werent always this way. Living with her rebellious single mother its hard for her to forget that people werent always arrested for reading the wrong books or staying out after dark. Its hard to forget that life in the United States used to be different. Ember has perfected the art of keeping a low profile. She knows how to get the things she needs like food stamps & h&-me-down clothes & how to pass the random home inspections by the military. Her life is as close to peaceful as circumstances allow. That is until her mother is arrested for non-compliance with Article 5 of the Moral Statutes. & one of the arresting officers is none other than Chase Jennings...the only boy Ember has ever loved.