The year 2623.
A serial killer.
An exploited teenager.
A drug dealer.

Four hundred years after Earth established its first planetary colony, resources on the home planet are limited. Earth's residents are divided into citizens, who have legal rights and a license to live, and the rest. The unlicensed have always been vulnerable, but now, a serial killer is targeting them.

Scarlet is unlicensed. He and his partners exist outside the London walls, making a living by manufacturing and selling illegal lifestyle drugs. None of them expect to make old bones.

Maeve is unlicensed. She's eighteen, and has survived by allowing a state guardian to exploit her. Now he's sold her to a brothel outside the protection of London's walls.

When Scarlet rescues Maeve from her violent owner, he has no idea that his good deed will lead to an accusation of multiple murder.
Suddenly, the security forces are on his tail.

Scarlet flees from Earth, to a small hub-station on the edge of unexplored space. Close behind him are Maeve, a serial killer, a killer's mother, and his two concerned business partners.