The world faces an escalating environmental crisis, prompting the government to enact sweeping measures to combat climate change. Fossil fuel bans, the development of electric cities, advanced surveillance systems, and stringent environmental protection laws now define society. Meat consumption, tightly regulated through a voucher system, is largely restricted. Amid this backdrop, Kayo Brooks, a young Black social worker at the Department of Civilian Welfare Services, earns her living by monitoring meat consumption and enforcing local ordinances.
When Hanzel Peterson, a love interest, invites Kayo to a company gala, her life takes a dramatic turn. A terror attack unfolds, thrusting her into a fight for survival. Forced to rely on suppressed hunting skills obtained from her youth-honed on a homestead alongside her aunt Nahla and twin cousins, Orion and Ayrah Brooks-Kayo kills four men to escape. But this act of self-preservation unravels consequences she can't ignore. Despite her efforts to leave that rugged past behind, Kayo is drawn back in, compelled to undertake one final, high-stakes hunt as restitution for disrupting the attack.
Now at a crossroads, Kayo must navigate her love for Hanzel, her career, and the shadows of her conflicting former life in a family of hunters who made a lucrative living selling wild game on the black market. Along the way, she confronts the fragile, strained bond with her confusing aunt Nahla, who has secrets of her own. Both Kayo and Nahla find themselves seeking reconciliation in a world where every choice carries unavoidable consequences.