The year is 2011. Humanity has never been so divided. On the one side is the Polity, believing in the idea of freedom and unity. On the other side is the Union, who believe of leading a world without compromise.

Taylor Hebert, member of the Brockton Bay Wards and the Vanguard's Experimental Science Unit, finds herself staring down her greatest challenge. As the war ramps up and the Polity readies its counterattack, she and her longtime friend, Julian Chase, must put together a team of talented parahumans and those compatible with the experimental "gen:LOCK" technology.

As the Union continues to push for more territory, Taylor must come to terms with what it means to be a leader, all the while confronting the ghosts she left behind in Maine...