Josephine Bristol has a tick--she has visions of killing people. Jo has kept her tick a secret, for in future Los Angeles, the city is under surveillance from brain-scanning lasers and spy-drones of anti-cyber terror agencies. She fears her worst fate will be as a victim of the brain adjusters, yet on her 17th birthday she involuntarily acts out a vision in brutal violence, and she's convicted of murder and sent to prison. Jo wanted to go to art college, despite that her artist father committed suicide and tainted her career aspirations. Now in prison, she must navigate an environment filled with triggers and uncertainty, violence and drugs, betrayal and death. She survives due to the encouragement and covert motivation of Diego Felix, a soldier in an anti-cyber terror group who rescues her when the terrorists attack LA. A war has started and millions of Californians are dead, and Jo is given a chance to find her purpose in this new society. Will she give in to the influence of her murderous instincts and become a soldier in the war? Or will she have the guts to do the impossible within a world of melancholy citizens and become an artistic inspiration for the new world?