Ergo, with his secateur fingers and his green twine hair, can see no way out of the Underhill system, designed for the privileged Others of Air City. But by a freak of fate he meets Wenti, a girl who comes from the Others, but is troubled by the injustice of the system they have created.
Falling in love with Wenti makes Ergo's dream of creating a more equal world seem almost possible. But the dangers are terrible. Will Dr Klops use his lethal powers against Ergo's mother? Is the cool Inspector Kanchu of Air City playing a double game?
Ergo is plunged into a fight for his life, and for the survival of everything he values. In this fast-moving adventure story, set in a post-nuclear-holocaust age, Alison Prince captures the horror, and humour, of this new world and has made Ergo a hero of universal appeal.