"I belong to the Godmother." Piper Pascal has spent her life on the Escape, a city-sized cruise liner holding all that's left of America. She does not remember the world before the Flood. All she knows is that she'll do anything to please the Godmother, the head of the Escape, the only parent Piper has ever really had. "I will report all crime, my own and my neighbor's." Since age six, Piper has been a spy for the Godmother's cult of secret police. Food, friendships, sleep, population---the Godmother controls it all. If you disobey, Piper will catch you. "No illegal organisms." Until one day--Piper Pascal finds the one thing the Godmother hates most. A baby. A child born without permission. If Piper cares for the child, she will be hunted. Arrested. Killed. But against everything the Godmother has told her, Piper begins to realize she cannot let the baby go.