A young woman named Rachel survives as a scavenger in a ruined city half destroyed by drought and conflict. The city is dangerous, littered with discarded experiments from the Company - a biotech firm now derelict - and punished by the unpredictable predations of a giant bear. One day, Rachel finds Borne during a scavenging mission and takes him home. Borne as a salvage is little more than a green lump - plant or animal? - but exudes a strange charisma. Against her instincts, Rachel keeps Borne. She cannot help herself. Borne makes Rachel see beauty in the desolation around her. She begins to feel a protectiveness she can ill afford. But as Borne grows, he begins to threaten the balance of power in the city, laying bare to Rachel how precarious her existence has been, and how dependent on subterfuge and secrets. In the aftermath, nothing may ever be the same.
