"Bea's five-year-old daughter, Agnes, is slowly wasting away, consumed by the smog and pollution of the overdeveloped metropolis that most of the population now calls home. If they stay in the city, Agnes will die. There is only one alternative: the Wilderness State, the last swath of untouched, protected land, where people have always been forbidden. Bea, Agnes, and eighteen others volunteer to live in the Wilderness State, guinea pigs in an experiment...

"A brilliant and dangerous group of scientists are determined to save the world from the perils of overpopulation by releasing into the world a brutal virus. Having just arrived at the research station at the earth's southernmost tip, returning hero Hallie Leland has seven days to stop them from putting their plan into action"--