In the near future, children are tested for the defective gene. Those who possess it are taken from their homes, torn from their families and sent to the Death House.

Standing alone on a remote island, it looks like a 1940s boarding school. But a school prepares children for life, and these children are destined to die. Idling their time away in pointless classes, supervised by cold matrons, their days have no purpose, because neither do their futures.

When the sickness hits, death comes quickly. Children are taken from their dormitories in the night and never seen again. Forced to confront his own mortality, 16-year-old Toby tries to block out his past, and the terrifying unknown that is his future. Until a van arrives with a group of new kids, and everything changes.

Death may be certain, but Toby discovers that his fate is up to him.