In scythe, over 250 years in the future, death has been eliminated, all world government has been replaced by a ai called the thunderhead, the only way to die permanently is to either have your corpse burnt or be gleaned by a scythe.
bin the story two teenagers are chosen by scythe faraday to become new scythes, but only one can become a scythe, the other must go home to their families.
at their first conclave, rowan and citra find out that whoever wins the apprenticeship must kill the other one, this idea was proposed by scythe goddard
In retaliation, scythe faraday kills himself so that citra and rowan can be free, but instead scythe curie adopts citra and scythe goddard adopts rowan
at goddards mansion, rowan finds out that he is blackmailing the head scythe with his illegitimate daughter, while citra finds out that scythe faraday is still alive
when goddard and his group take rowan on his first mass gleaning, rowan kills goddard and burns his corpse as revenge for all of goddards wrongdoings