Fleeing from extremist faction The Green Storm, Tom and Hester are left drifting in the frozen ice wastes, slowly dying of cold when the Jenny Haniver's engines fail. They are saved when they stumble upon Anchorage, a once-beautiful ice city. But Anchorage is crippled by plague, with barely fifty souls left upon her, and its teenage ruler has made a desperate choice. They are heading for America, the Dead Continent.