The air is too thick to safely breathe, streets are more trash than concrete, and ecosystems are on the brink of collapse. Having accepted that climate change would have been too costly and formidable to stop, the world remains divided between the “destabilized” lands of famine and the “stabilized” states where genetic engineering keeps populations fed and pacified. When Lotus, a young student, discovers the abrupt and cataclysmic die-off of a remote mountain valley, authorities are steadfast in their indifference. Assuring her the valley is another victim of climate change; Lotus knows otherwise. And despite living in a world of melted ice caps, megadroughts, and expanding deserts, she is undeterred. To help identify the cause of the die-off, she recruits her misanthropic partner who falls under the influence of an arcane theory called Restoration. Devising a macabre ploy to use the die-off to save the Earth’s remaining ecosystems.