Seventeen-year-old Darius lives in the city of Zalmon, where every Life Event is predetermined in accordance with the Book of Zalmon: where you’ll work, who you’ll marry, and at the end of it all, when you’ll die. Natural Deaths are to be avoided at all costs. Why risk the pain of a random demise when you can live out your remaining days at the Quiet End where you’ll be released peacefully?

But when Darius learns that his little sister, Mahlah, will be assigned an imminent Death Date on her thirteenth birthday, he infiltrates the system to save her. The search for the truth behind her assigned demise leads Darius to uncover a conspiracy that goes to the heart of their city — and to learn about a life of dignity and autonomy that lies beyond what the Book of Zalmon dictates.