A hurricane strikes the Elysium Spa, and an android named Tender can only save one of his guests - a fifteen-year-old girl called Virgo. She has the innocence of an infant, because she has never known anything but Joy, a state of utter ecstasy - the Spa guests are born, reproduce, and die in scientifically calibrated baths that satisfy their every need. Tender takes her on a journey across a post-American landscape depopulated by war, famine, and plague. On the road, they meet other travelers on the New Frontier, including a scientist in search of life's greatest secret, a group of First Nations warriors seeking to reclaim their stolen land, and a young power thief fleeing forced labor, looking for a better life and his lost family. Tender's sole purpose is to return Virgo to the state of bliss that is her birthright. But as they both adapt to this painful, beautiful world, they must decide whether she should give up her new-found understanding for a life of Perfect Joy.