Waking up cold and in pain in land covered with ash, Marcus finds himself in a world where civilization is built on Mountain ranges, and at his back, a forest with towering trees; he is found by a group of street rats. Marcus has to find a way to survive; everything else comes later, especially when he finds himself in the body of a teenager in the slums in a world where he is looked down upon.
Marcus and the group of street rats, orphans left to the wayside, must first survive and then rise to the top through their own efforts because people of their kind have no future and no place in this world unless they forge their own path against the monster and the Great Houses that dominate this broken, cruel society.