Jack, the half-breed offspring of a human mother and a genetically engineered father, lives a life of pain, alienated by human society and by many of the gens created by mankind to perform heavy labor. Not only do gens live like slaves, but humans have withheld from them the one piece of DNA that would grant them a soul. Jack is determined to uncover this well-hidden secret and rescue his fellow gens from a meaningless existence with no prospect of eternal life. As he begins to infiltrate the ranks of the Ministry of Religion, he finds that the farther he goes, the more it could cost him—possibly even his own life.