In a time when a pandemic is threatening the entire population, Risa and her family apply for coveted acceptance into a new Safe City— a place designed to keep the virus out and to preserve a select few of the population. But getting accepted into the city may not be worth it. Especially when she is sedated for secure transport and wakes up, unable to find her family. No matter how wonderful the city claims to be, Risa can’t help but focus on the fact that she’s being kept in while the people she cares about are missing. Meeting a few new friends and an intriguing soldier named Camsen Luck may help, but none of them can convince her that self-preservation is more important than finding her family; or that trying to escape is suicide. In a thought provoking novel, Gates of the Arctic challenges how far people will go to protect themselves in a time of crisis and questions the meaning of true freedom.