In year 2817, Earth lies smoldering. Most of the people who survived have taken refuge in the ancient Black Knight satellite found orbiting the Earth. However, genetically engineered women, known as "Queens" took over the station, consigning the normal population, male or female, to Earth's ruins. ----------- Even though Queens have superhuman endurance, strength, senses and intellect, there's one shortcoming: not only are they almost impossible to breed from normal women, but they are always female, being made from the ovum of two Queens. However, what happens when a famed geneticist finds a way to breed a male from these two eggs? What would be of this new, "King" bee? It's been a hundred and thirty years since the uprising of 2817, and young Sydney Weiss is living in one of the most prestigious cores of the "Hive" with his little sister Sasha. With Regnants' Day drawing near, Sydney can't help but think of "The Grafting"; a contest in which young Queens fight each other to decide everything from future job to social class. Sydney, being the first King, was offered the chance to choose without entering the contest... however, when he learns of a conspiracy at work to eliminate the Hive Queen, he's given a chance by the Hive Queen herself to eliminate the threat and ascend to the highest echelons of power. With his younger sister in The Grafting, and suspicions one of his schoolmates might be the assassin among them, Sydney joins in an effort to find the culprit and keep his younger sister safe... but in a Hive full of Queen Bees, can a King stake his own claim to greatness?