In a future United States, civil war is devastating a country on its last legs. On one side: the Patriots. On the other: President Vex's corrupt government. In the middle: everybody else, just trying to survive. The war is going from bad to worse, but out in the sparsely populated Worselands, twelve-year-old Klynt Tovis doesn't see much of it.

Instead, Klynt spends most of her long summer days bored, or restoring artifacts in her Museum of Fond Memories. Real pet dogs are a thing of the past: after they were found to be carriers of a sickness the government ordered them all killed. But one day an incredible antique shows up at the farm: a D-39 robodog, "Real as a dog can be!" Klynt is overjoyed, but the good luck doesn't last. When the war makes its way into the empty Worselands, she and D-39 find themselves thrown into an epic journey for survival and hope.

Through the twists and turns of this riveting read, Irene Latham deftly shows how kindness can appear in unexpected places during uncertain times.