With resources depleted and the people turning on each other, thirteen-year-old Emerie sets her plans into motion. Combining knowledge from the Planters, the first people on her world, and her own experiments, she revives the sleeping, metal machines. Gathering the other children, they leave to find a powerful stone that can rejuvenate the dying planet. A difficult task in itself, the journey becomes even more dangerous when the small girl of a strange race of cat people, hated by almost all, is thrust upon her. Chased by bandits, the starving and even the Planters themselves, how much will she sacrifice to save the children.