"The National People's Voice speaks for Sanmarian and all of Kael. For 15 years, they have ruled Kael in relative peace. For 15 years, they have quietly snuffed out dissent wherever they found it. Rose Abernethy and Beo Mataya are two strangers drawn together by one thing alone: Red Sunrise, a book no one else seems to have read. A book only two types of people ever ask about -- collectors... and the NPV. A book both Rose and Beo feel was written...

In an alternate 1991, the authoritarian US government keeps tabs on everybody and everything. It censors which books can be read, what music can be listened to, and which plays can be performed. When her best friend is killed by the authorities and her theater teacher disappears without a trace, Gigi decides to organize her fellow Champaign High School thespians to put on a production of Henry VI. But at what cost?

"James Anderson had a plan. Or half of one. All that matters is that he managed to do what his older brother, the famous Aaron Warner Anderson, never did: infiltrate Ark Island, the last refuge of The Reestablishment. In the past decade no outsider has breached the stronghold of the authoritarian regime, but James is in. In a prison cell, sure, but as far as James is concerned, a win is a win. ... Rosabelle Wolff had a plan. She always has a plan....