The year is 2172. The world is mostly water. Eighteen-year-old Marlin Paz and her pregnant girlfriend arrive in the harbor city of Brume after twenty-five harrowing days at sea only to find themselves forbidden to go ashore. In desperate need of food and a hospital, they try to come up with a plan and wonder: what happened since they lost contact with the land? Meanwhile, Axioma Nation, CEO of the world's leading corporation, struggles to figure out how her biotech can solve the climate refugee crisis. But when an urgent message from a colleague overseas comes through, Axioma realizes that the climate is the least of her worries. And thousands of miles away, in the ravaged heartland of the State, seventeen-year-old Heron Howsley must reckon with her family's legacy and her own demons while facing down tornados and discovering that her love for her hometown runs deeper than she knew.