In Alenna Shawcross's world, the United States of America is a thing of the past. Instead, the entire continent of North America is now the UNA, a country formed from the remains of the USA, Canada, and Mexico, a country that dragged Alenna's parents away from her when she was ten. Now, six years later, Alenna fails a test that all sixteen-year-olds have to take--the test says she has criminal tendencies. As a result, Alenna is sent to a brutal, isolated prison island where two groups of teenagers are waging a violent war against each other.

The United States of American has fallen. It's now The United Northern Alliance: an alliance between America, Canada, and Mexico. The government has decided that at the age of sixteen you must take a personality profile test to determine if you are a threat to society. If you fail, you will be sent to The Wheel, the harshest prison set up by the government. You have been be forsaken. Orphan Alenna Shawcross goes in to take her personality profile test expecting to pass. The next thing she knows she's waking up on The Wheel frantically trying to figure out what''s going on.