The Muskies: spawned in Earth's long childhood of fire and stone, they flourish in the stinking hell Man calls civilisation. They ride the wind: gaseous beings perceptible to Man only now that a monstrous experiment has heightened his sense of smell - and destroyed civilisation in the process. And so a slow, destructive war breaks out between the Muskies and the scattered settlements of human survivors, a war that threatens humanity's very existence. Only the Telempath can stop it, but he's missing one arm - and wanted for the murder of his father.