While Harry, Hermione, and Ron searched for the Horcruxes, life for all of the others in the Wizarding world was full of fear and worry. Those who were born to muggles or "blood traitors" struggled to keep out of the Death Eaters' terrible grips. Most of all, it was harder for the students attending Hogwarts to survive their wrath. Many bravely went to Hogwarts, facing the unknown future for their kind. Some stayed home with their parents, hoping to keep hidden, but were eventuallyfound. Finally, there was the few that began to hide after realizing their ill fate under Voldemort’s rule. For a while, running seemed to be the safer option, thought it only seemed to be safe until the Snatchers were introduced to the equation.

A rank below Voldemort’s posse, the Death Eaters, Snatchers were the main cause of why muggle-born wizards began to disappear. Out of all the names announced deceased on the radio, muggle-borns caught by the Snatchers were the majority. Snatchers ranged from werewolves to wizards, often with a vicious, menacing undertone to their personalities. They ruthlessly captured muggle-borns and sometimes took them to the Ministry of Magic, where they were interrogated and often killed by the Muggle-Born Registration Commission a.k.a. MBRC. Other times, they killed the muggle-borns on the spot.

Snatchers’ jobs varied from bringing adult mudbloods to the MBRC to returning runaway Students to Hogwarts. Often, they made up lies about their captive’s heritage so they could either kill them themselves or send them away. Either way, Snatchers are to be avoided at all costs.

Wither describes a future where genetic engineering has cured humanity of all diseases and defects. People worldwide have foregone conceiving children naturally in favor of this new science. This generation of perfect humans, later dubbed "The First Generation", lived very long and prosperous lives. Unfortunately their children ended up plagued with a virus that killed all females by the age of 20 and all males by the age of 25. Their children's children suffered the same fate. Humanity now scrambles for a cure as society has broken down into large gaps between the rich and the poor. Gatherers hunt for young girls on the streets to sell them into labs for research, and the unwanted ones go into prostitution or are simply killed.
In Manhattan, 16-year-old Rhine Ellery is captured by the Gatherers and sold to Linden Ashby at his estate in Florida. Rhine finds herself forced to marry Linden along with two other girls, Jenna and Cecily. They join Rose as Linden's new brides, but the ailing Rose is already 20 years of age and does not have long left to live.
Life in the Ashby manor is very comfortable. Cecily embraces it while Rhine constantly thinks of ways to escape. She befriends her servant Gabriel and behaves like a good wife in front of Linden and his father, Housemaster Vaughn, in order to earn the title of "First Wife", which would grant her additional privileges to roam the mansion. Rhine sets that as a goal in order to plan her escape.
By the novel's end, Rhine successfully escapes the mansion with Gabriel and begins a journey back to New York to find her twin brother, Rowan.