A young woman named Rachel survives as a scavenger in a ruined city half destroyed by drought and conflict. The city is dangerous, littered with discarded experiments from the Company - a biotech firm now derelict - and punished by the unpredictable predations of a giant bear. One day, Rachel finds Borne during a scavenging mission and takes him home. Borne as a salvage is little more than a green lump - plant or animal? - but exudes a strange charisma....