After being genetically manipulated and drugged for nearly two centuries, the survivors of a global disaster begin to awaken from the stupor to a strange and drastically altered new world. Those who were born in the Before Time hold indistinct memories of their past, recalling vague images of their planet and the destruction that rained down on it over time by the uncontrolled greed of the elite upper class. They were the ones who began the drug "therapies," intended to take away people's wills and leave them easier to control. But now the elite have perished, leaving the survivors to their own devices. As new allegiances are formed, unexplored feelings that most of the inhabitants have never experienced begin surfacing. One woman emerges as her clan's unwilling leader and struggles desperately to avoid the mistakes of the past by setting out on a quest to discover the world's true history. In searching for peace, she finds herself in a puzzling relationship with a younger woman as they explore the roots of their past, the mysterious planet, and their newfound feelings for each other. In this science fiction novel, a group of survivors of a global disaster seek to discover the events of a mysterious past that led them to this new existence.