Noa Blake is just another normal 15-year-old with exams looming. Except in the Territory normal isn't normal. The richest children have a node in the back of their necks and can download information, bypassing the need to study. In a flooded world of dwindling resources, Noa and the other 'Norms' have their work cut out even to compete. And competing is everything - because anybody who fails the exams will be shipped off to the Wetlands and a life of misery, if not certain death. But how to focus when your heart is being torn in two directions at once? And when the exams are over, the fight has only just begun...