In a world where the male population outnumbers the female eight to one, the survival of the human race depends on the advent of a breeding program, outlawing marriage and monogamous relationships. This is all anybody knows as there isn't a generation that hadn't had to participate in some breeding program or another. Martin 11 od Coddlebury and Eric 23 of Coddlebury grew up together in the same nursery and dreamed of the day they would be old enough to enter the breeding program. Everything changed, for Martin, the day he met Desiree 9 of Peppercoll. Now he is torn between his duty to the program - not to mention the law - and his feeling for a woman he knows he can never have...