Two hundred years after a nuclear war nearly wipes out humanity, Earth is a desolate wasteland in which people are struggling to survive. Ricker is an assassin who wanders the world, not daring to call any place home. He seeks penance for past deeds as he hunts DeathSpeakers - humans mutated by radiation and the interminable Dark Plague, able to kill a hundred men just by speaking a single word. Mortimer is a DeathSpeaker. Born with his mouth sewn shut with unbreakable wires that will unseal his lips upon the arrival of his tenth year, he has been kidnapped from the only home he has ever known. Dragged across the wasteland of the world to destinations unknown by the servants of Master, a puppeteer hiding always in the shadows, his singular attempt at escape thrusts him into the arms of Ricker. When a jewel rumored to grant any one wish ends up in the hands of the illusive Master, Ricker and Mortimer are forced to work together to escape, but there is too much they don't know, and this is only the start of it.