Hob is a slave. He lives on a world colonized by prisoners, violent male criminals and militant feminists/terrorists. They originally formed themselves into gangs, and over time those gangs evolved into tribes, each of which is either all male or all female. Girl babies always have a tribe, but when a woman has a boy baby and can’t find a man to take him into his tribe, the boy becomes a slave. Hob escapes the compound where he has been used and abused and is rescued by a woman from a fighting tribe. Jahnsi Han-Lin offers shelter at her father’s house, and a glimpse of what family life can be, even with tribal obligations. While Jahnsi and her father and brother plot to keep Hob free, Hob himself is torn between his desire to flee into the wilderness and his growing attraction to Jahnsi. Back in the city Hob’s owner is determined to get his property back, and an off-word woman arrives and begins a manhunt for a specific slave. The question is, which one will find Hob first?