Emmalyn Trew followed her husband to Graceville, a town with little to lay its mark upon the map but the First Baptist Church, the smallest hospital in existence, and LifeShare - where Steven Trew manages the most sophisticated blood donor database in the nation. At LifeShare, blood drives are everyday business, but this time something is different. Someone is sick. Blood is everywhere. When Emmalyn rushes her friend to the hospital, she has no idea she is witnessing the beginning of a changing world. Orders are given, and no one objects. After all, people finally have the miracle they've been waiting for. Why, then, is Emmalyn so skeptical? Because stories at the hospital don't match? Because the database at LifeShare may have been compromised? Because no one is asking questions about what they've agreed to give up in exchange for their miracle? Or because the one thing Emmalyn may be asked to trade, she will never sacrifice. Nicknamed Explorer by her father, Emmalyn discovers the one unlikely place in Graceville where she feels safe. In the face of a world where hope will be dictated and happiness doled out in government-mandated treatments, Emmalyn turns her attention underground. Do the tunnels beneath LifeShare hold the answers that can't be found along the corridors above? Or does the answer lie with the stranger? Pale and secretive, with mysterious silver eyes that seem to follow Emmalyn's every move, he reveals little other than he is not part of the agreement.