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Plot
Humanity tried to prevent the impending ecological crisis by investing massively in genetic technology. It failed. Engineered viruses and organisms escaped into the wild. They wiped out edible plants, animals and large populations of humans. An oligarchy now thrives in enclosed cities called "citadels", while everyone else struggles to survive. For food, people rely on seeds traded by the citadels. However, these are coded to produce only one harvest.
The people outside of the citadel must find food and resources on their own. The citadel gives them modified seeds that require a special process to be made fertile. Only the scientists of the citadels know the details of this process.
Vesper is a 13-year-old girl who lives in a house in the forest with her father Darius, who is paralyzed. Darius can only communicate by using a drone that looks like a floating robot head. He uses the drone to accompany Vesper in her daily routine while his real body stays in bed. A year ago Vesper's mother left to be part of a group of people called The Pilgrims. They are scavengers and drag the junk they collect. Vesper's uncle Jonas lives not far away. He manages a sort of orphanage that he uses to extract blood from the children and sell it to the citadel. Jonas also owns beings called Jugs, artificial humans made with the sole purpose of being a slave workforce.
One day a citadel ship crashes nearby and Vesper finds a young woman survivor, Camellia. Vesper takes her home and heals her wounds. Camellia promises to take Vesper and her father to the citadel if they can find the other passenger of the ship, a man named Elias. However, when Vesper goes to check she finds that Jonas is also there. Jonas kills Elias and suspects that there was another passenger on the ship.
Vesper wants to communicate with the citadel so that they can come and pick up Camellia but the only transmitter is with Jonas. When Vesper reveals to Camellia that Elias is dead, the woman mourns him deeply. Vesper realizes that Camellia isn't human—she is a very advanced Jug, one who looks exactly like a human and has emotions. Elias is her creator, but making a sapient Jug is a crime, and so he and Camellia needed to escape.
Vesper uses seeds stolen from her uncle Jonas' farm for an experiment involving samples from the synthetic Camellia. Camellia plays a tune from a musical instrument that causes the "locked" bacteria in the seeds to unlock. Vesper assumes she found a way to "unlock" the citadel seeds and make them fertile so they will never starve again.
Jonas comes to the house and finds out about Camellia. Vesper and Camellia manage to overpower him. Vesper makes a deal: If he leaves them alone, he can have the seeds and enough food. Jonas goes back to his place and calls the citadel, revealing to them Camellia's location. Soldiers from the citadel arrive and kill Jonas before going to Vesper's house.
Camellia and Vesper run while Darius stays behind and holds off the soldiers by blowing up the house's reactor. Vesper runs back toward the house but Camellia stops her, reminding her that she has the seeds and can change the world with them. They successfully fight off two of the soldiers, then Camellia sedates Vesper and surrenders herself to a soldier who later finds her.
When she wakes up, Vesper returns to her burnt down house and buries some of the altered seeds. Four of Jonas' kids find her, and Vesper decides to let them join her as she travels south. Vesper and the children see a Pilgrim and follow them to a makeshift tower built by the Pilgrims. There Vesper climbs to the top to see her surroundings. She first looks toward the citadels flying over scorched earth, then turns around to face the expansive forest. She takes the remaining seeds out and lets the wind spread them.
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