The Culling took the life of every single man on earth. The surviving women believed that man had been erased from the face of the earth for a reason, and they lived in continuous fear should the male species even return.

Jasira lives in The Border, one of the two remaining cities in the world. At the age of twenty-one, every woman must undergo the Procedure, a modern method of pregnancy. However, only female children can be born through this method. When Jasira gives birth in an isolated cave outside the city, she realises her baby is different. Her baby is the first male child born in over two hundred years.

Seven years after the boy's birth, Jasira moves to the only other city left in the world, Monday, with a long-time friend and oracle, Prianaj. Like every mother, Jasira stops at nothing to protect her child. Along the way, she discovers dangerous secrets about the people closest to her and becomes ever more determined to uncover the truth.