Todd Hewitt is the only boy left in Prentisstown, a town full of men. Prentisstown is a settlement town in the New World where Todd’s mother and father were pioneers in search of a new simple life. But a germ on the planet killed the women of Prentisstown and now all the men hear each others thoughts and the creatures that live on this planet in a never-ending stream of noise. Todd is just a month away from his special birthday. On this birthday, he will become a man. But Prentisstown has been hiding something under all the noise. Something terrible that has Manchee and Todd fleeing Prentisstown for their lives.