A race against time on every level, a story of a mother willing to put her son in harm's way in order to save them both, and of another who discovers the inescapable bonds of blood.More than anything else in the world, nine-year-old Jacks wants to help his dying mother. A simple blood test could allow him to do that. But what Annie Brody hasn't told her son yet is that they don't share any DNA because he came from an anonymous woman's egg.So why does the blood test show Jacks and Annie are related?The answer is half a world away where a young woman is battling famine, disease, and an endless war to care for 20,000 refugees, the only family she has ever really had. As if that wasn't enough, she's made enemies with the one man who controls the supplies her people desperately need.She alone holds the cure for Annie.