"In the not too distant future, eighteen-year-old Darcy lives on an island in the Pacific Ocean, one of the last places on earth that is still habitable after North America has succumbed to a second ice age. To Darcy, America Pacifica is simply home: the only one she's ever known, its discomforts and mysteries made bearable by her loving though enigmatic mother. Then one night her mother receives a strange visitor--and the next day, she's gone."