. Ten years after the nuclear fallout that changed the face of the world, life is pretty much back to the way it always has been. Not for Anne Marie Sheltner though. Anne is a simple girl, with a passion for food. She has lived on the same street in Tampa, Florida her entire life. She has no idea what the real world, the world outside of the walls of her condado, is like. Tomorrow that all changes, when she leaves home to attend University State. When she steps on to the plane that will carry her way from her parents, her best friend, and Liam, her boyfriend of six years, she has no idea just how much her life is about to change. She is quickly befriended by Delcan, a boy who she has grown up with but never spoken to, and Alora, a spunky girl from North Dakota who brings out the bolder side of Anne, and the beautiful but bull-headed Zachary-Cole Gram, and her world gets turned upside down. When Alora runs away from school, leaving only a cryptic note behind, it is a race against the clock to find her. Anne, Delcan, and Zachary-Cole have a limited amount of days to bring her back to school before they all get expelled for leaving the state, or something worse happens to them.