Ex-God’s Gardeners, two different women named Toby and Ren, have to adapt to new conditions and learn how to live in this new world. Although they left gardeners a long time ago and returned to the External world, they manage to survive that disaster, an epidemic, which is often tabbed as the Waterless Flood. However, the rest of mankind, save few other people, perishes. Notwithstanding that the two women are alive, their lives are also in danger, for Toby can’t leave the territory of the former spa-center, because she has to take care about her garden, which is supposed to provide her with food, and the other one is trapped the Sticky Zone. Due to the fact that both of them spend a lot of time recollecting the things, which happened to them in the past, readers learn the stories of their lives.
The well-known story about fall of man opens the novel. It is said that there is going to be time when nature will be able to create the new Eden. Sitting on the top of the old spa center, Toby immerses in thoughts about her past. Hardly could she ever imagine that all these things could happen to her. Her family was from the middle class. Her mother used to work for the pharmaceutics corporation and her father was involved into the business, which specialized in installing air conditioners. When her mother got sick, the hard times came. After the mother’s death, they were left broken. After her father put a bullet in his mouth, she had to face a lot of troubles. Due to her reluctance to attract attention of the corporation, she buried the father in their backyard, burned her ID, left the house, the college, her boyfriend and her old life altogether.
After a long series of low-paid jobs, she manages to get a place at the company, which sells burgers. The most peculiar thing about them is secret meat they are made of. They say it is not only cats’ and dogs’ meat they use but also human’s. Unfortunately for her, the manager of that place, Blanco, starts making passes at her. Soon enough she becomes his new possession, for he killed his previous lover. Once she sees people protesting near the restaurant. These are God’s gardeners. The man called Adam One convinces her to go with them. Although it is not a life she used to dream about, she stays with them for a long period of time, till Blanco assaults them. After she receives her new ID, she gets a decent job. Using a special site, she gets information about activities of the gardeners.
Unlike Toby, she didn’t join the gardeners voluntarily. Ren’s mother fell in love with the man from that group and decided to leave her old life behind. Later on, during their traditional search for vinegar, she meets a girl named Amanda and they quickly become close friends. After that the latter joins the group. After her mother’s and Zeb’s relationship ends, they return to the external world. At the high school, she falls in love with the boy, who doesn’t notice her. She hopes that everything is going to be different in a college, for they are enrolled in the same one, but her hopes prove to be futile. Soon enough she has to drop out, for her mother’s new husband doesn’t want his stepdaughter near. After that she learn that her old crush and Amanda start dating and feels betrayed. She starts working as a dancer.
Meanwhile, Amanda manages to find her and save her from the trap. The pair meets the boys from the God’s gardeners. Due to the problem that the boys are pursued by the Painballers, Toby, Ren and Amanda are captured by them. After many struggles and difficulties, they manage to get rid of their chasers. They also meet Jim, the boy Ren used to have a crush on. For now, they sit around the fire and listen to the Crakers approaching.
