Alone on Earth, a young girl searches for a new beginning Nita is a child of the Institute. Ever since she can remember, she has roamed its sterile halls, living out her youth in the care of a fur-covered guardian from another world. The Institute’s computers give her everything she could want—except another human to share her life with. Long ago there were people at the Institute, but something happened that wiped them out. As she matures, Nita slowly realizes that she may be the only human being left on Earth—and that the fate of humanity could well lie with her. Beyond a door marked Authorized Personnel Only is the “cold room,” a laboratory that may hold the key to Nita’s past—and her future. This is where her guardian found her, and it is to this place that Nita must return if she is to learn the secret of the Institute and what has happened to the rest of her kind.