Um trecho de uma resenha no Goodreads:
Blay Raytee was a street child scraping a living together on the streets of St Pearl with Hilary, her protector, until Hilary is taken by the Death Squad and Blay is rounded up by the Commission and sent to a workcamp in Kildevil. Like all the children in workcamps, she's given the name of the month she was taken: September, but in her heart she holds onto the only name she can remember, Blay Raytee. She doesn't know how old she is or where she came from, but when she's not scavenging the local landfill for recyclable objects with the other children, wearing heavy UV suits and visors, she's reading all the lastbooks and discovering ancient poets like Yeats.
There's a new bio-indicator in training, a girl called Marrella, living with the Master of the Way up the hill, who needs help with her lessons. The children who read the books at the workcamp are gathered and Marrella picks small, scrawny Blay. Life with the Master, William, and his wife Erica is the happiest time Blay's ever known, despite the mean, snobby Marrella who rejects Blay's offers of friendship. She also refuses to learn what she must to be bio-indicator, a sacrificial lamb of sorts dating from the time when the air was toxic and the water poisonous - now bio-indicators are more like religious symbols who, away from the control of the Commission, are helping to resurrect science. The planet, devastated by global warming and all that it entailed, has slowly recovered but the Commission has convinced people it's still dangerous to be out during daylight hours.
A fita cassete e o eremita, 'Lem Howl' estão de fato lá, assim como a necessidade de criar o aparelho, e o dispositivo para escanear o segredo epônimo abaixo da pele de Blay.