One day, Deni's best friend Sherman and his family lose all their stat—a measure based on variables including physical attractiveness, wealth, and race which in return determines their access to social status, material goods, and rights. A group called the Stat Commission measures each household periodically and Deni learns that the day before, the Stat Commission removed the family's stat when they find Sherman's mother unemployed and imperfections in the family's physical appearance. In reckless loyalty to their friendship, Deni spontaneously decides to break from the monotony of her own life and help save Sherman. They get in her car and drive away, stopping once to collect Deni's former dog, the talking Miss Spotty Pants, from a former neighbor who, after receiving a higher stat due to job promotions, applied to take away the dog from Deni's family. Miss Spotty Pants is able to tell them about the existence of cities, which becomes their destination.
The three drive for days through places that look the exact same as their hometown save for a difference in the name of everything. When they at last reach the city, their joy is short-lived, as machines almost immediately begin to destroy the buildings around them. After everything is leveled, new machines come through and recycle the debris, building structures exactly the same as the ones the three had run from. They eventually end up hiding in a house, big enough for them to hide, even after a family moves in, and subsist on stolen food from the family. They are outlaws, living off the grid.