In the year 2042, in the middle of a brutal foreign invasion, Kress and her friends are all that's left of their isolated mountain town. When Kress and the other seventeen-year-olds are taken away by the Recruiters to aid in the fight against the dreaded Eastern Order, they find themselves in a military training camp that's turning more mysterious and deadlier by the day. Preparing to enter a world at war, Kress and her fellow Recruits are about to get answers to questions they'll wish they never asked.