It is the year 2008 and Earth has suffered a devastating nuclear war.
The American journalist Charles Henry Winer is sent to report from the Western United States and visits two major locations.
In a desert of Arizona, he encounters mutants and experimental hybrid creatures.
On a floating island at the Pacific Ocean, he visits the International Republic of Artists and Scientists, where residents tell him about how they preserve and transplant human brains.
[2][3] Paul West of The Washington Post wrote that the novel is "sheer, complex fun" and offers "Schmidt as his feistiest, his most ingenious, and his most captivating".