In Kristen Simmons's Article 5, New York, Los Angeles, and Washington,
D.C., have been abandoned.
The Bill of Rights has been revoked and replaced with the Moral
Statutes.
There are no more police-instead, there are soldiers. There are no more
fines for bad behavior-instead, there are arrests, trials, and maybe
worse. People who get arrested usually don't come back.
Seventeen-year-old Ember Miller is old enough to remember that things
weren't always this way. Living with her rebellious single mother, it's
hard for her to forget that people weren't always arrested for reading
the wrong books or staying out after dark. That life in the United
States used to be different.
Ember has perfected the art of keeping a low profile. She knows how to
get the things she needs, like food stamps and hand-me-down clothes, and
how to pass the random home inspections by the military. Her life is as
close to peaceful as circumstances allow.
That is, until her mother is arrested for noncompliance with Article 5
of the Moral Statutes. And one of the arresting officers is none other
than Chase Jennings...the only boy Ember has ever loved.