Ten years after world’s end, Rachel Brown is surviving in a barricaded city without law or government. Trust is the least survivable commodity in the After; she lives alone. She heals people when it’s safe and only when it’s safe; she is paid in food. Rachel would give anything to get Outside. But Rachel is nurse with years of experience. She heals people when it’s safe and only when it’s safe; she is paid in food. Her skill has caught the attention of Cap, the vain, charismatic leader of the city’s most powerful gang, Capsband. Rachel and Cap share a secret, a secret that has kept her alive and has kept him in power. Cap is a burnie, his face ravaged in the terrible fires that raged when the city was enclosed. Rachel has learned bioplasty, and every few months, she returns to Capsband to renew his face. Otherwise, Cap would become a hole-in-the-face burnie, terrible to behold. Into Rachel’s life comes Teddy, nineteen and injured. Teddy is brilliant, but most of his knowledge comes from the books of the Before that he has scavenged from the ruins. Teddy has never met anyone like Rachel in his solitary years of hiding and dreaming. Now Teddy has a purpose: to get Rachel Outside. But, in an attempt to help Rachel, Teddy is captured by Slag, lieutenant of Capsband, and becomes a member. Rachel falls for Teddy, but cannot allow herself to trust him—bad survival, and he is so young. Slag has plans of his own: to work with Snow, another gang leader, kill Cap, and take over Capsband. Rachel discovers Slag’s plan, and she and Teddy join with Cap in a war against Slag and Snow. During the fight, Cap realizes on a deeper level just what Rachel means to him. And Rachel decides that she must stop hiding and begin living. She must learn to trust again—with reservations.