The year is 2137. Two hundred years ago - in our time, more or less - Eurasia fought a war to end all wars, a war that meant, for all intents and purposes, the end of the Old World. The Americans managed to retain their civilization - but only by engaging by the most extreme form or isolationism imaginable for two centuries, now, no American has ventured east of the thirtieth parallel. "East for the East..." the slogan went, "The West for the West!" Until a terrible storm at sea forced American lieutenant Jefferson Turck to disobey the law, seeking safe harbor in England - where he found that two centuries of isolation have desolated the land. The damaged ship found a Europe that is no longer an enemy - a ruined land that is utterly unable to be an enemy - or a friend.