The heroine of the story, Tira, is an Indian Londoner who initially survives the snowfall by staying on the surface of the snow.

Tira lives on her own for an unspecified period before being rescued by "snow miners" from the New United States of America (referred to as NUSA).

They take her to a floating city called 'Liberty', which rests atop the snow, buoyed up by large hydrogen balloons.

She begins an affair with the terrorist, but is captured by the city police and taken to an internment camp in the depths of the snow.

Pander arrives to identify her, but her inability to correctly name him coupled with her skin having returned to a darker brown from her pallid complexion after months under the snow means he leaves her in the prison.