Fifteen year old Rowan Grier doesn’t think too much will change when her small, mountain village is seized by the foreign government of Aclaria. When the school year ends, she begins the new mandatory Aclarian Culture Training Program at school while her older sister is sent off to Aclarian Culture Camp. The classes at school begin with innocent topics on the history of Aclaria and Aclarian Civics, but soon they descend to lessons on genetic superiority, controlled breeding, and the castration and extermination of those citizens deemed genetically unfit. Rowan is horrified, but the other students and her own family embrace the new mindset and their superior status in the town.Everything changes when a handsome, mysterious boy moves to town. As Rowan and the new guy grow closer, Rowan uncovers Aclaria's new secret project to achieve its goal of ethnic purity. When the identify of the mastermind behind the project is revealed, Rowan is faced with an impossible choice: keeping herself and her family safe or risking her life to save others.