As America rebuilds itself, bigotry threatens a peaceful haven. Lauren Olamina was only eighteen when her family was killed, and anarchy encroached on her Southern California home. She fled the war zone for the hope of quiet and safety in the north. There she founded Acorn, a peaceful community based on a religion of her creation, called Earthseed, whose central tenet is that God is change. Convinced that her quiet community should chart humankind's destiny by leaving Earth and peacefully colonizing the stars, Lauren and her faithful followers make preparations. Five years later, she has married a doctor and given birth to a daughter.

But outside the tranquil group's walls, America is changing for the worse. Presidential candidate Andrew Steele Jarret wins national fame by preaching a return to the values of the American golden age. To his marauding followers, who are identified by their crosses and black robes, this is a call to arms to end religious tolerance and racial equality -- a brutal doctrine they enforce by machine gun. Now, with her followers brutally enslaved and her own daughter stolen from her, Lauren must fight back to save the new world order ... or die trying.