[1][2] The story intertwines the lives of Manila gangsters, mothers and street children.

The novel chronicles numerous characters in non-linear storylines and explores themes of love, fate, violence, power, and choices.

It is a metaphor for the characters' inability to understand the causes behind the events which shape their lives: they can only visualize the superficial world they inhabit.

[citation needed] The book was adapted into a film, The Tesseract, which changed the setting to Bangkok.

It was directed by Oxide Pang and starred Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Saskia Reeves.