At the Waco Zoo in Texas, Detective Shmuley Myers sidesteps a tiger being hoisted by a fork lift. The body of a woman and her dead Preborn lie just beyond it. Along with his GodForce partner Jethro Waters, he's set on a hunt to find the mother's murderer — before he becomes the next victim.
Set in theocratic America, where citizenship begins at conception, Texas' cities are hungry places, groaning with generations of large families. Adding to his meshuggeneh — crazy — life, Shmuley is also part of Upline, an underground group helping people escape reproductive bondage and its consequences. The trail of bodies leads Shmuley down a path endangering him and his wife Chaya as the chase to catch the killer or killers sprawls across Central Texas.