Several years prior to the events of the game there was a law movement known as the "Citizenship Program", which was designed to present easier lives for the citizens at a cost of more government oversight. Those who had what were considered "alternate lifestyles" to what the city recommended found living difficult if they were not simply blocked or silenced outright. It was not uncommon for people who voiced an opinion against the government to simply "disappear".

Those that chose to fight back against the growing establishment had to form underground groups to support their way of life, and risked arrest for their illegal acts of dissent. This all came boiling to a head during the events of what were known as the "November Riots".

In Mirror's Edge the protagonist is Faith Connors, a girl of unspecified Asian descent. Her parents were very involved in groups that actively opposed the government. At a young age she and her sister Kate were brought to the protest rallies with their parents. During one of the rallies that broke out in violence her mother was trampled. Faith ran away from home at the age of 16 to become a petty thief. It was during this time she met a man named Mercury, who trained her to be a "Runner", an illegal courier group that uses free-running to deliver their packages as they go above and below the complex network of the city.

At the start of the game she is 24-years-old and has just gotten back from recovery for a falling injury.

The story unfortunately is a rather minor part of the game, and while it's easy to follow I didn't find myself getting too emotionally involved with the characters. When I saw the murdered corpse of a major character, who could have been a voice of the people, I said to myself "Oh, that's too bad." The story didn't give me enough exposition about the character to give it more than a passing glance. There were however some nice touches scattered around the levels relating to the events that happened before the start of the game including spray-painted logos and graffiti.