Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of physical abuse, emotional abuse, child abuse, and death. 

Nina Idi, a 13-year-old girl, wakes up in a cell, thinking she is in a nightmare. She always had nightmares about the Population Police arresting her, but now everything seems real. Her hands and ankles are cuffed and chained to the wall, and her body aches. Nina recalls her arrest, still unable to believe that it actually happened. She was having breakfast at Harlow School for Girls when the Population Police arrived and called her name. Nina wonders why no one defended her, but she knows they were terrified. She thinks she must protect her friend Jason, who is another shadow child, and she wonders where he is, hoping he will save her. 

Nina recalls an officer who works for the Population Police looking at her hatefully during her arrest—she thinks of him as the “hating man.” Later in the novel, he is revealed to be Mr. Talbot, the secret leader of the rebellion against the Government and the Population Police.