For 5,000 years, a small group of immortals has lived among humans, amassing wealth and secret influence.
 
Vita–the only true One, an immortal of immense power–was their warrior queen. But things have changed. Now Vita spends her days cloistered in an Edenic palace, entertained by handsome men and American television, while defiant factions plot revolution. Vita’s not worried. She’s safe, as long as no one more powerful comes along.

Jack doesn’t know he’s a One. His childhood encounters with other immortals taught him his power was evil, and he swore to live a human life. A crusader for civil rights in New York, he wishes he’d never seen flames rise from his palms, that he’d never killed anyone with his Light, that he could age and die like humans. Most of all, he wishes the others would leave him alone.

When Vita and Jack meet and experience an intense attraction, drawn together by their unique powers, she urges him to join her, as her ally and greatest weapon. Jack, however, preaches a different way of living. Pressures soon tear the lovers apart, thrusting them onto opposite sides of looming civil war.