In a city where life is limited, love is precious. Serycia Fade once longed to find a cure for a deadly virus that ravages her city, but ever since she was sold to a high-level man for pleasure, her dream has lain forcibly fallow.

When an act of mercy leaves her stranded and pregnant in the most lethal level of the city, she offers a fatally wounded man a month of health if he helps her escape to her research lab two levels up.

A near-impossible task when every level is strictly guarded. Soren Lost was born a Level 1 nonentity. With only a few years left to live, he's determined to carve out a safe haven for his young sister.

But then the square where he's waiting with others explodes.

As he slumps dying in the gutter, a woman staggers out of the rubble, breaking into his life like a shard of sunlight shining in a squalid world. She makes him an impossible offer.

But if dealing in impossibilities buys him time to save his sister, he's taking it.

Unfortunately, a powerful man has Serycia marked for death. She's got city protectors on her tail. And time is a brutally ticking clock.

But in a city hollowed of hope, Soren and Serycia's only chance is to teach hope to dance.