The protagonists live in San Francisco and have evolved in the direction of Ecotopia, reverting to a sustainable economy, using wind power, local agriculture, and the like.

When the city is threatened by an army marching from the South, food becomes central to the non-violent philosophy and practice of the inhabitants as they grapple with how to respond to the possibility of violent attack.

[2] This invitation, and the possibility of never going hungry, is almost incomprehensible to the soldiers who have been stripped of their given names and reduced to numbers, survive on small amounts of poor-quality food, and many have never seen running water.

[3] Kirkus Reviews described the book as "a big, shaggy, sloppy dog of a fantasy" and added, "Starhawk deserves points for her idealism, but her vision and characterizations are only half-realized here—and further muddied as she goes on far, far too long.

"[4] Publishers Weekly called it a "sometimes clumsy but compelling first novel" by Starhawk: "[she] delivers her message with a heavy hand and several cliches: her besieged utopia echoes the liberal politics and ecofeminism of her nonfiction; her dystopia features the overused SF bugbear of Christian fanaticism.

However, she creates memorable characters—a young midwife, a broken musician, an old Witch-Woman—and skillfully conveys their emotions in gripping, sometimes harrowing scenes set against vivid backdrops.