Time: the near future Place: Madison Avenue, New York An overcrowded world is dominated by a few unscrupulous advertising agencies who have reduced the population to drug- and ad-conditioned consumers. Fowler Schocken Associates, who successfully organised India into a single giant cartel, have a new mission -- the development and exploitation of Venus. Mitchell Courtenay, star-class copysmith, is chosen to sell it to potential colonists. But the Consies, a subversive conservation group, and a rival ad agency also want Venus, and Courtenay finds himself in the midst of a deadly struggle.