The sun beats down from a glorious Orange County sky. People play softball and pedal their flyers above ecologically-sound thermocrete rooftops. The democratically elected council debate environmental issues and make rational decisions for the public good. To Kevin Claiborne it must be the perfect society. But when he hears of plans to develop Rattlesnake Hill, the last piece of wilderness in the area, he senses the bubbling of corruption below the unblemished surface. A world and an age away, a young writer sits in an internment camp in Virginia watching the march of events towards global disaster and dreams of utopia...