Life moves fast in the Thirty-Second Century. Attention is the only currency; memory, a luxury most cannot afford. When an aging anonymous secretist turns author and writes a controversial memoir, they incur the enmity of their former employer, the dread Ministry of Secrets, a shadowy cult that's become a social institution and cornerstone of Thirty-Second society. The Ministry dispatches its agents, the so-called Brims & Trenches, psychopathic frenemies and past allies of the writer, to capture and recondition them for service. Aided by their best friend, Horace, and former lover, Cobie, the narrator must flee or face the fallout of a past brought to life again on the mean streets of the 32C, alleyways filled with knife fights, mind-bending hallucinations, and inveigled plots. Also lurking is Dwizaal, an ill-doing consciousness of no certain origin, borne by life on the Jungle Planet, intent upon wrecking the narrator's life right as they start a family in a world where everything fails in each rising moment.