It is the late twenty-first century. Each country is divided into four Hemispheres and one Non-Hemisphere, separated from one another due to the class riots that erupted during the year 2030. Kate Tiberius has originated from the affluent Eastern Hemisphere. At fifteen, shortly after having lost her father, she breaks the law by venturing into a sleazy nightclub in the Farmlands section of the Southern Hemisphere without wearing a disguise mac. On her way home she is viciously attacked and is prosecuted by her native quarter, which exiles her to the Non-Hemisphere quarter of unemployed down-and-outs.