Melanie Adams has a normal life like any other citizen of the New World. When her mother is executed after being deemed a domestic terrorist for accidentally muttering a banned word, however, she finds that she is not alone in believing it is the government, not her mother, that is to blame. She is soon contacted by Axel Chambers, a member of a resistance group who tells her that things used to be different, and that people used to be free. Melanie finds that she is living in what used to be the United States of America. After learning more of what the country used to be compared to what it has become, she decides to join the fight in regaining the freedoms and rights that citizens once had. Axel trains her to be stealthy and to kill as an assassin, and the two become fast friends and partners, working together to gather artifacts from the country's history that could help them in the fight. The government will not make the fight easy. Intrusive technology is rampant in the New World, and the government does not like its citizens to have knowledge or allies. To make matters worse, Melanie and Axel are soon contacted by a government official who is looking to hire the duo to anonymously put a stop to the government's latest project: controlling the human mind.