The alvar came out of the Otherworld, destroyed human civilization, and replaced it with one to their liking. Armed with the Sight, potent sorcery, and lacking the slightest hint of human morality, they destroyed the nations of the earth to rule over the ruins of humanity. Under them, trolls immune to nuclear fire and poison gas, immensely strong, unstoppable. Under them, hordes of goblins, cunning and rapacious, who view humans as slaves and food. With the United States torn apart, plunged into utter ruin and desolation, Channing Montmorency returns to his rural Indiana home. There, he finds it overrun by goblins on one side, fundamentalist right-wing militias to the next, and above all the mighty alvish lady, Aife. Life is hard with innocent people crushed between the jaws of Otherworldly violence and humanity's capacity for brutality. Armed with cleverness, a shocking capacity for violence, an open mind, and good friends, can Channing save the ones he loves without descending into brutality and madness?