One night a boy who comes to be called Thomas Parry is taken from his family,
caught up in a comprehensive unraveling of what had been a united kingdom.
Reacting to their country's inexorable decline into consumerism, turpitude,
racism, and violence, the powers that be establish four independent republics
based on the perceived nature of the citizens assigned to each. These new
partitions are reinforced with concrete barricades and razor wire.
Renamed, relocated, and granted favored status, Thomas enjoys one success after
another until, working as a devoted civil servant, he suddenly falls out of the
system entirely.