The year is 2150. Ninety percent of the worlds population has been wiped out. Civilization has evolved to accommodate various cultures. In Newfoundland, a livyer culture dominates. The population is a quarter of what it was and spread out over a greater area in small tiltons communities of people who live in the bush but travel out to the coast to trade. Viddy, the protagonist, has to learn to function in this new society, which takes pride in its mixed Inuit/Newfoundland heritage.