In a future America where the Second Civil War was fought over reproductive rights, a compromise called 'unwinding' allows parents to retroactively abort teenagers between ages 13 and 18. Their bodies are surgically taken apart and their parts donated to others. The story follows three teens—Connor, a rebellious troublemaker; Risa, a ward of the state; and Lev, a tithe raised for unwinding—as they fight to survive and escape their fate. Their journeys collide as they discover a secret resistance movement and grapple with what it means to be human when society says your life doesn't belong to you.