In this third installment of Lu's trilogy, we rejoin protagonist Daniel "Day" Alton Wing, living as a free man in San Francisco with his little brother Eden Bataar. After a few months of regular life, June Iparis reaches out to invite him to a feast hosted by the new Elector of the Republic, Anden Stavropoulos. At the event, Day is urged to sacrifice his brother Eden to be a subject in the search for a cure for the Republic's man-made virus. The Colonies are under threat of attack by the Republic and their allies in Africa. Day unsurprisingly rejects their request.
The Republic is in even more trouble when traitors escape from their imprisonment, namely Commander Jameson and Thomas Bryant. Day finds himself terminally ill with retrograde amnesia to boot, and he commits himself to the Patriot cause again, trying to find a way to take over the evacuation airships.
When the Colonies get involved, Day is in the hospital for his condition, and the Chancellor of the Colonies appears and tells him that June and Eden will be killed if the Colonies win the war unless Day betrays the patriots' cause to join the Colonies. Nevertheless, Day continues in his resistance to the Republic and the Colonies. June and Anden meet with the President of Antarctica for a war alliance, but they are refused because of the infestation. Day and June reunite, and in the morning, June explains that she turned down a nomination for the Elector Princeps office.
Denver has fallen to the Colony forces, and Day takes a stand against them, escaping the Chancellor's forces as they invade Los Angeles. June offers her blood in the hope of finding a cure, and she realizes that her blood might help the Republic toward a cure, so she joins them. She meets Jameson, who in a previous novel attempted to take her life and Days'. Antarctica does intervene after a while, but when June returns, Day is nearly dead from a wound, and his amnesia has taken away his memory, including his memory of her.
This novel contains an epilogue where June explains that the virus was neutralized, and the Republic and the Colonies agree to terms. Day now goes by his given name, Daniel, and he is to attend a military academy in Antarctica. Years later, June and Day are reunited, and though he doesn't remember her, he expresses a deep curiosity about her and starts to get glimpses of his memory back.
