Welcome to New Londinium, a city that developed from an enclave of stragglers who survived the culminating blast of the last world war. From beneath the lee of a mountain formed as a result of the devastation, a colony gathered and grew. After several hundred years, this post-apocalyptic city is filled to bursting, and everyone - well, nearly everyone - is struggling for a place amidst the city’s Chosen, the elite ruling faction.

Robert Mayhew, by all appearances, is a man destined to be numbered amongst these Chosen. But Mayhew is both more than and less than he appears. His unauthorized conception, and a hideous deformity that was the result of his failed termination, have left him with a bloodthirsty lust to exact vengeance on the system that conspired to kill him even before he’d drawn his first breath.

In his position as chief curator of the Absinthe Moon - the city’s center of love and leisure - and supported by the Resistance, Mayhew is in just the right position to infiltrate the Icarus Project - the executive body of the city's shadow government - and bring the whole system toppling down. So long as no one gets in his way.

Enter Emaline Newell. Utterly devoid of any evidence of the city’s taint, she is a valuable asset to the Absinthe Moon, and to Mayhew in his aims to achieve elite status. As his consort, she might give him just the advantage he needs.

Only Emaline has some ideas of her own, and perhaps a few things to teach him about love, loyalty, and the power he wishes to wield.