The year is 2137. Two hundred years ago — in our time, more or less — Eurasia fought a war to end all wars, a war that meant, for all intents and purposes, the end of the Old World. The Americas managed to retain their civilization — but only by engaging by the most extreme form or isolationism imaginable for two centuries, now, no American has ventured east of the thirtieth parallel. "East for the East . . ." the slogan went, "The West for the West!" Until a terrible storm at sea forced American lieutenant Jefferson Turck to disobey the law, seeking safe harbor in England — where he found that two centuries of isolation have desolated the land. The damaged ship found a Europe that is no longer an enemy — a ruined land that is utterly unable to be an enemy — or a friend.