The world I know is flooded. You don't go in the water. You don't touch it. If you do, it will get you, drag you down, and you're gone.

Harry Iskinder knows the rules. Don't touch the water, or it will pull you under. Conserve food, because there's no arable land. Use Sundered slaves gently, or they die too quickly to be worthwhile.

The Sundered create food. The Sundered create shelter. They're also dying out. In a world lost to deadly flood, Harry searches for the mythical cure, the Hope of Humanity - but the Hope isn't what he thinks, and neither are the slavish Sundered Ones. When he claims the magnificent and powerful Sundered named Aakesh, Harry quickly finds himself in deep and dangerous water.