"Darci, don't you just ever want to be you -- not some pasted-up concoction glued together out of the hopes and dreams of others?"
Thirteen-year-old Darci Murlowe had never before questioned the wisdom of genetic engineering, the cornerstone of the Bio Union's Society and government. After all, it made it possible for scientists to correct diseases and defects in embryos. And for the more privileged, it was also possible to recombine genetic material from several embryos to create children with certain traits. Now, though, Darci wonders what the point of her life is. If everything has been mapped out in her DNA, what surprises could possibly await her?
Darci's dread of a predictable life is soon overshadowed by real fear, when she comes face-to-face with the Bio Union's most shocking capital crime, a crime for which she is both the evidence and the criminal. But even as her life is threatened, she is liberated by a dawning awareness of the intangible thing that transcends her genetic profile: a soul.
