HM1- what a wonderful name for a community of people. Sadly, this is the world that Martin, a young teenage boy, has come to know, but not without suspicion. Despite the fact that he grew up in this sterilized community, he has always noticed that everyone a bit "dumber" than they should be. Schools, for example, teach that Peter Pan was a businessman!
Martin's sister, Cassie, is what the community has come to know as a Wonder Baby. See, in HM1, no one has children by traditional means - instead, they are created in a lab and shipped out to families that would like a child. Wonder Babies came from a particularly "erraneous" batch, and are smarter and more socially awkward than the rest of the community. For this reason, they are bullied at the playground and at school. Since Martin's sister is one, however, he often stands up to them.
Martin's parents know that the community is not the way that it should be, but they really don't care. All of the electronics in their house have the ability to watch and listen to them, so if they do anything out of line, they will be reported and possibly taken out of the community. Each day, they are forced to watch a news report on TV.
One day, a man comes to town, presumably a government official, and says that all of the Wonder Babies are being recalled. The government has noticed that they are outcasts, and has decided to take them back. However, they conveniently leave out what will happen to the children once they are taken away.
For his birthday, Martin receives a robotic dog named Chip, and is initially afraid of him. Martin believes that it is silly to have a robotic pet (despite the fact that all of the animals in the dome are robotic, even the sound of birds outside is played through a speaker), and feels like it makes him younger. However, after a quick setup, the dog wins him over, and he starts spending too much time with him.
Chip, although electronic, is not monitored by the government. Martin has found out that, at the factory where he was made, someone didn't install the monitoring features, which would have made Chip less sociable and more aggressive. However, Chip acts much like a normal dog, and becomes a great friend to Martin throughout the novel.
One day, Martin decides to escape from the dome with Chip to rescue Cassie. He must follow his father, who works in an importing/exporting station, and secretly escape from the community. Chip, with his built in knowledge of seemingly everything, also pitches in the escape. Eventually, they do get out, but are very scared during the process.
See, Martin has been told his whole life that the domes were built to protect the people from the outside elements. Be it radiation, heat, or some other element, the world outside was simply sand and sun. But, when Martin steps outside for the first time, he finds the complete opposite is true. He sees things he has never seen before, like flowers, bees, and trees. He is amazed, and he and Chip fall asleep in the son, with no fear of anyone catching them.
Martin treks his way to a mountain, where Chip believes Cassie is being held. Eventually they get there, and they do see the same man that came to the community to take her away. The novel ends here abruptly, leaving room for the second novel in the series.
