Cardinal Cassidy is one of the lucky ones in Black River.  He has managed to escape the virus that has ravaged the town.  This virus causes amnesia of events in people’s lives without destroying their scholastic ability.  Families have been torn apart because they no longer recognize each other, and Cardinal’s family is no different.  No one, except Cardinal, remembers who they are, where they worked, or what the world outside of Black River is like.

The National Guard has been sent in, wearing haz-mat suits, to keep the town in quarantine until the scientists can come up with a cure or, at least, a vaccine so that the rest of the world will not be infected by contact with the survivors.  If no cure or vaccine is found, the National Guard is going to insure that no living human being leaves Black Falls.

Hector Gonzolez finds Cardinal living outside of the town.  He realizes that Cardinal is not infected, so he gives him a breathing mask to enable him to go into the town and look for his family.  The mask also enables Cardinal to help little children who cannot remember their families, but they are so young that they need help in surviving.

Cardinal takes these children to his hideout on the mountain because it is not safe for them to be in the town.  Hector keeps Cardinal’s secret, and even helps him with some necessary supplies, but one day the National Guard is ordered to pull out and a private company comes in to take over the control of the quarantined town.  This new group has a totally different approach to solving the problem of the memory virus.

This is a very good sci-fi story, and will cause the reader to examine the possibility of a man-made dangerous virus.  It is written for middle school and/or high school readers.  I definitely recommend it for those readers.