Dr. Thor Bitterbaum is in Dallas in November 1963 when the mortally wounded President of the United States is brought to the hospital at which he works. Bitterbaum, recalling recent research in cloning, saves some of the President's tissue. He arranges for its cloning and the implantation of an embryo into a surrogate mother, and the adoption of the infant by a wealthy businessman, Gerald K. Kellogg. Bitterbaum and Kellogg arrange for the child, Joshua...

Matt is six years old when he discovers that he is different from other children and other people. To most, Matt isn't considered a boy at all, but a beast, dirty and disgusting. But to El Patron, lord of a country called Opium, Matt is the guarantee of eternal life. El Patron loves Matt as he loves himself - for Matt is himself. They share the exact same DNA. As Matt struggles to understand his existence and what that existence truly means, he is...

"In the world outside the Haven Institute, Lyra and Caelum are finding it hard to be human and neither of them knows where they belong or who they can trust. When Caelum leaves without warning to pursue the dream of a place he belongs, Lyra follows him, convinced that together they will hunt down a cure for the illness that?s slowly consuming her mind. But what they uncover is a shocking connection to their past - even as their future seems in danger...