“Pleasure Is Pure, Freedom Is All.”

The Organization’s slogan for the Freeman Camps promises a tantalizing dream to all citizens—work hard, follow the rules, pay off your personal tax debt, and you will be rewarded with a life of ultimate freedom and recreation. For his entire life, Thomas Robert Hendley, known as TRH-247 to the Organization, has lived by their laws without question—until today.

In the wake of The Merger, which unifies the world’s population under the Organization, Hendley decides not to report for work. Rather, he ventures out into City No. 9, where he meets a young woman, ABC-331—or simply, Ann. With their brief unsanctioned encounter away from the Organization’s prying eyes, Ann changes Hendley’s life forever. Disobedience like theirs normally results in severe punishment. But instead, Hendley is offered a rare opportunity—to visit a Freeman Camp for a single day.

At first, Hendley is dazzled by the decadent beauty and pure pleasure enjoyed by the citizens of the sprawling resort. But beneath the glimmering façade, lies a terrible truth. The walls that normally keep Daymen like Hendley out, also keep the Freemen in; and to dispel their boredom they’ve resorted to barbarous acts of violence. Hendley has only one day in paradise, if he can survive it…