The dawning of a new order casts a shadow across a whole nation. GRO, the government's Great Reorganization Operation, is turning American society upside down as it seizes teenagers and throws them into compounds across the country. Behind the speeches and programs, a darkness stirs. Reed can feel it. Taken from his home and dropped into the compound of “The Hill” in central Virginia, he can't escape the feeling that evil hangs over him night and day, watching his every move. Something is preying upon the teenagers of the Hill. An entire city lies paralyzed under the iron fist of a shadowy government agency and its cruel police force. Spies lurk among the crowds of frightened teens, ready to pounce at the first sign of dissidence. Fear keeps a choking hold on every soul--almost.

When he makes a new friend, Reed begins asking questions and stumbles upon a different side of this dark reality-a world of secrets where the light still lingers and hope burns in the hearts of a few. It's a strange world where everyday teens are fugitives playing a high-stakes game of cat-and-mouse with the secret police. But it's fascinating, thrilling, and it all seems to revolve around a single figure-one man-who ties Reed's parallel lives together. Though dangerous to be around, this man seems to hold the answers Reed needs to make sense of the insanity around him. But he is being hunted, and the secrets in his past may be darker than anything else that haunts the Hill.

Caught in a crossfire of warring ideals, Reed faces an agonizing choice and a single path of escape-but is it worth what it will cost him?