In a time of urban squalor, rampant violence, and deadly decay, anarchy rules in the war between the "haves" and the "have-nots." But for Lauren Olamina, a new hope is dawning when she leaves behind the environmental and economic chaos of Los Angeles and flees north with a tiny band of followers across a thousand miles of urban hell. There, in the stillness of the country, she starts the healing process and christens a new faith, Earthseed, the one salvation left for civilization.