They summon and she travels: Snake, the healer. Through the blasted landscape of a post-holocaust world, she carries her three serpents. From the venom of two, she distills her medicines; but it is the third, the alien dreamsnake-whose bite can ease the fear and pain of death-that is the most valued.

When the dreamsnake is killed by those she has come to help, her powers as a healer are all but lost. Her only hope now lies in the treacherous journey to far-off Center City, where Snake will be pursued by two implacable followers: one driven mad by love, the other by fear and need.