Four unforgettable characters try not only to survive, but to preserve the very thing that makes life worth saving in the first place in this deeply moving story of resilience and hope from the acclaimed author of A Boy and His Dog at the End of the World.

What if one person was your whole world?

In the overgrown ruins of a world almost empty of people, the only person Mouse has ever known is Cat, the brave girl who carried him inland, away from the sickness that came from the sea. When strangers arrive with a choice to be made, nothing will ever be the same.

Almost two hundred years earlier, a couple are falling in love as the world is dying out. When they discover they are two of the few people still able to have a child, so do the authorities. They may be separated from Mouse and Cat by an insurmountable gulf of time, but some truths remain: family comes in all shapes and sizes, so does love.

And even at the end of the world, hope dies last.