""In a world where disease has been eliminated, the only way to die is to be randomly killed ('gleaned') by professional reapers ('scythes'). Two teens must compete with each other to become a scythe--a position neither of them wants. The one who becomes a scythe must kill the one who doesn't"--

A collection of stories that span the time when humans live in a world without hunger, disease, or death and Scythes act as the living instruments of population control.