In an alternate world startlingly close to our own, humans have nine lives. As you shed lives, you shed your awkward phases: one death is equal to one physical and mental upgrade. Julian’s friends are obsessed with the idea of burning, but Julian is determined to stay on his first life for as long as he can. His mother burned too fast and inflicted a debilitating rebirth sickness on herself. But when becomes a target for Nicholas, the manipulative leader of the Burners, the school’s suicide club, he uncovers suspicious gaps in the rebirth system. Along with a group of student dissenters, Julian sets out to find answers and is soon on the verge of exposing the greatest conspiracy ever unleashed on the world.