Ghosts crossed the bridge ahead of the young woman, pale wraiths that tattered in the cold night and merged with the cold mists that rose from San Francisco Bay....The city was recovering from the ravages of the past. Once the symbol of a proud nation, it is now a haunted place where the last remnants of humanity struggle to survive. People like Danny-boy, who believed art could change the world; Tiger, an artist of the skin; Ms Misgale, who printed the New City News each Wednesday; the nameless young woman who is searching for her mother who was taken there by an angel; and the Machine, once called Jonathon, who changed his name because he believed his father had built him. But a new enemy threatens their peace, an an enemy armed with guns and obsessed with a misguided dream of unity...