These economies share a common virtual world known as “game-space”, essentially a more evolved form of the Internet with no borders or separate countries.
However, in game-space, income inequality is staggeringly high and exacerbated by the exploitative practices of robber baron-type figures, including Boss Wing and Mr Banerjee.
Together with a couple of friends and roommates, they leave their greedy employer Boss Wing, a virtual economy kingpin who steals their profits.
Matthew finds a place in the fictional MMORPG Svartalfaheim Warriors where it is possible to earn much more gold in a short time, and exploits this to make a month's living in a single night, before the administrators of the game discover and block him.
His stern, disapproving father discovers him playing at night due to time differences and decides to send his son off to a boarding school, Martindale Academy, for better discipline.
Soon, she is approached by Mr Banerjee, who recruits her to attack his business rivals in the game, allowing her family to leave the factory and make a better living.
Angered at this lock-in, the boys in Shenzhen go on a wildcat strike, breaking out of the internet cafes, cutting their network connections and protesting in the street out front.
In addition, the Webblies extend the strike to the online worlds of Mushroom Kingdom, where they use their game characters to fend off Boss Wing’s replacement players attempting to earn gold in-game.
He briefly talks to Wei-Dong, one of his guildies in gamespace, and learns that videos of the strike and subsequent police raid are going viral in game-space and in Los Angeles.
Massive revenues from her show’s advertisements for other illegal movements, including Falun Gong, allow her to stay ahead of the police and escape arrest.
Yasmin convinces Mala and her army to declare their support for the Webblies, but they secretly continue to work as double-agents for Mr Banerjee.
As their "chief economist", Ashok (working at the backroom of Mrs Dibyendu's cafe) devises a plan to destabilize the in-game economies.
When Mr Banerjee returns with more thugs, Ashok and Mala finally persuades the union leaders to side with them, allowing them to defend themselves and keep the cafe to continue their work.
Eventually, Ashok and the Webblies are able to set up a virtual doomsday device of bad financial assets based on game values.
With their extensive inside knowledge, Connor and his employees reluctantly accept the Webblies’ proposal and work together with Ashok on re-stabilizing the game economy.
Police in Hong Kong raid Big Sister Nor’s house, only to find that she had already moved to an apartment above a massage parlor to continue her work.
Krang and Justbob hear this and tell the other Webblies about the fire, revealing that Nor's last words were "You all lead yourselves”, giving them new hope as their unionization efforts spread to more countries.
One review from Kirkus praised the novel's coverage of social issues: "His story spans the globe and exposes levels of exploitation running from Ponzi schemes to sweatshop thuggery.