An overpopulated Earth is dying and the One United Council is using the crisis to justify the massive round-up of lower-class citizens and troublemakers, who are then shipped across the galaxy to settle new planets. The story begins with the thirteenth culling mission. Dr. Raigen Hayford is one of the unsuspecting settlers to be forced to leave Earth and settle the planet Kalzor. Kalzor—the settlement offers hope to some and promises death for others as the doctor finds herself teamed up with a ragtag group of people in a struggle for survival against the planet, plague and prejudice. In a strange new world where animals can communicate and mutations run rampant, life begins anew in eye-opening ways that none of the settlers could have imagined.