People live in sterile suburb-like settlements called tracts, each centered around a mall, offices where the residents work, and an underground railway station.

Only three of the cities, among them New York, are temporarily reopened to visitors each summer, albeit with restrictions to counter health risks: stays are limited to two weeks, minors must be accompanied by a legal guardian, and all visitors must undergo decontamination (including a lung-cleansing machine and disposal of all clothes worn in the city) when leaving.

Nonetheless, the cities are popular (yet expensive) destinations for party travelers, not least because of the “adult” fun found there: movie theaters showing real murder films (movie theaters do not exist outside, and graphic content on TV is severely restricted), or “bedicabs”, cabs in which prostitutes offer their services during the ride.

However, Dino intercepts Ron and beats him unconscious when he leaves his hotel room at night to look for Sylvia, whom he believes to be in danger.

Ron eventually finds himself inside a run-down building, which is the hiding place of the gang Sylvia and Dino are both part of.

It is the last day before New York closes, but Ron cannot leave without his ID, as police would mistake him for a gang kid and jail him.

Sylvia offers him a bottle of juice laced with a drug, causing Ron to pass out and miss the deadline.

When health authorities predicted that everybody in New York City would die within a year, residents started fleeing in masses and riots broke out.

Being essentially illegal residents, they cannot get regular jobs or receive social welfare and rely on petty crime or black market trade to survive.

Dewey offers Ron shelter as the Muslims appear at the black market and later clash with some white gangs.

After the city has reopened, Ron manages to escape and checks into a hotel room to take a bath and get new clothes.

The Dome shields Manhattan from the weather; while special UV street lamps (installed after lobbying from electric light corporations) still allow residents to get a suntan under the Dome, the lack of rain has driven up water prices, to the point that growing vegetables in back gardens has become prohibitively expensive.

[4] Another short story by Bova, titled The Sightseers, appeared in Roger Elwood’s 1973 anthology Future City.

The story features many of the elements mentioned at the beginning of the novel—bedicabs, movie theaters showing graphic content, restaurants with human waiters and mandatory lung-cleansing upon exit.