The nuclear Armageddon of 2001 put the world on an odyssey of savage rebirth. Now, little more than a hundred years after the blast, the quest for power is viciously embraced by America's new masters, barons commanding fortresses called villes, policed by stonehearts called sec men. One of them is a warrior survivalist named Ryan Cawdor, believed to possess pre-apocalyptic knowledge that holds hope for a beleagured future.

Hungry and exhausted, Ryan and his band emerge from a redoubt into an untouched predark city, and uncover a cache of weapons and food. Among other interlopers, the city is guarded by huge winged creatures, protecting the grisly secrets of a nearby barony. Holed up inside an old government building, where Ryan's son, Dean, lies near death, Ryan and Krysty must raid where a local baron uses human flesh as fertilizer...