Koli is a boy who is afraid of trees. After the world broke down, plants and animals were dying, so people made them stronger. Now everyone is afraid of them. Koli is also afraid of Shunned Men, the outcasts outside the village walls. And he's afraid to tell the girl he likes how he feels. But if Koli can become a Rampart, if he can wake the technology of the old world, he knows he won't have to be afraid of anything again. He's wrong.