Thirty-eight years have passed since The Revanche - the "extreme-sanction" response to an insidious act of terrorism that decimated the global population and left presidents and potentates alike flailing in its wake. Valaria Thorpe has grown up in the dictatorial morass that has emerged. Beginning life as the Eugenics-approved offspring of privileged government votaries, she ultimately was raised by a grandfather exiled to the Outland as a result of a personal philosophy that veered decidedly away from popular dogma, walking an extremely fine line between what was acceptable and what very definitely was not. Now on her own following his death, Valaria's life is about to take a dramatic turn when she meets an enigmatic stranger who has come looking for her grandfather - insisting that he held the key to restoring freedom to the hapless survivors of terrorism.