You are here because the Citizens put you here to serve them and because the Regents choose to control your lives. In the not-so-distant future, workers are forcibly drafted into their fields. With all their choices made for them, the workers must do what they're told or face severe consequences. When Labor chooses Silas, the tyrannical Labor Regent is determined to make him a public example of her complete control. He is humiliated, manipulated, and isolated during his first week under the Shield, and the people who show him kindness only help him because they have ulterior motives. But the Regent is not the only one pulling Silas's strings. The mysterious Gideon wants to mold him into a hero, a champion of the oppressed people. And a strange girl seems to be guiding him to find out more about the Citizens they serve. Through it all, no one bothers to ask Silas what he wants to do. Because, after all, he doesn't have any rights. He doesn't really exist. Wade through twisted government conspiracies and deeply buried secrets alongside Silas as he learns to choose for himself--and discovers the cost of freedom.