In the only surviving part of the earth sits the post-apocalyptic West-African Kingdom of Nayja. In the only place where humans still exist lives four tribes, the Kingfishers, the Ammirians, the Rowans and the Arnazuris but one tribe is dominant and must remain so.

Seventeen-year-old Genesis Romunda is one of the elite hunters of Black Forest, the Arnazuri community where there is no electricity except for solar-powered lamps sent from the capital, King's Forest.

Genesis, the only hunter not joining the rebellion that is stirring thanks to the rebel Hawks, is distraught that her father believes in the rebellion. Why join a stupid rebellion when you know you have no chance? Why believe in prophetic songs of Griots when you know they are merely fairy tales?

When she is chosen by the Central Royal Council as one of the first females to ever attend Promenade, the elite university at the capital, everything changes as her world is turned upside down.