Be quiet. Be polite. Or be silenced.

Alfie and Margot Hawthorne have grown up under the Ministry of Manners, where politeness isn't a choice - it's the law. And one wrong word can change your life. He knows how to stay out of trouble, but she has never been one for quiet obedience.

When the Ministry takes Margot, everything changes. Inside the Manners Retreat, she fights to stay herself in a place built to erase her. Meanwhile, Alfie falls in with the Unsilenced - those who still dare to speak. But the Ministry has plans of its own. And if they succeed, rebellion won't just be punished. It'll be impossible.