Albert Einstein is quoted as saying, "I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones." For Ellia McAllister, it couldn't be more accurate. Thousands of years after a devastating cataclysm, humanity lives in a new dark age. Technology and science are forbidden and a matriarchal church rules society. However, Ellia is ruled only by her curiosity. Defying the Church, she learns that all is not as it seems in the holy books and that humans once traveled to the stars and possibly beyond. Her knowledge and defiance will mean her death and the death of her family unless she escapes. When she meets the mysterious Kieva, a nomadic Rover, she soon learns that more is going on in the Church than she ever thought possible. Without his help, her life, the lives of thousands of others, and mankind's future are at risk. Can she set her own beliefs aside, her way of life, and trust a stranger? Even if trusting him might mean her death?