The story starts in the same place as "The Giver" and ends in the same place as "The Messenger". Claire is assigned to be a birth mother, but there are complications and after giving birth via C-section she is reassigned to another occupation. By chance Claire does not resume her daily pill taking and therefore has feelings. She feels attachment to her baby. If you've read "The Giver" you understand how different this is for people in this community. Claire's baby is Gabe, the boy that Jonas (from "The Giver") runs away with. Claire runs away, too, in search of her son and after much adventure, learning and sacrifice she is reunited with him.
I've mentioned before how much I love reading books from another character's point of view. The first part of the story is this way. I thought that we would get to see how the community survived after Jonas left, but was still pleased with the direction the book went. Maybe Lois Lowry will write another book that watches the people in the community deal with the memories.
