Set in an imagined world in which the most vulnerable are forced to buy their freedom by working off their debt to society. Elimina Dubois is one of only 100 babies taken from the Gutter and raised in the land of opportunity as part of a social experiment led by the Mainland government. But when her Mainland mother dies, Elimina's life takes another unexpected turn, she will discover that what she needs more than anything may not be the freedom she longs for after all.