A thousand years from now, on a terraformed Venus.... The Cities of Nast. Ern Peizer never knew anything else. The acid air, the breather masks, the underground houses. The rules were simple: Don't breathe the air. Don't take Advantage. And never, never, never attract attention to yourself...or else. Everyone knew the rules. Everyone lived by them. And everyone knew, eventually, attention would fall on them, and they would be punished, and the scars would mark their submission to the State. But when attention falls on Ern, the script changes. On the run, sheltered by criminals, he finds that in his simple life, the mist hides many things... ...any one of which could un-make the world.