 In this future Australia, high technology and mysticism co-exist, and piracy and an intricate social order breed a new kind of hero.Tom Tyson, an Everyman figure who has echoes of the Fool of the Tarot, Tom O'Bedlam, the Green Man and other mythic figures, has emerged amnesiac from an Ab'O punishment place known as the Madhouse, with three images that may provide the key to his identity – a Ship, a Star and a woman's Face.Tyson becomes one of the "Coloured Captains" – seven Nationals permitted by the Ab'O to cross the landscape – and wins his ship "Rynosseros" in a lottery, thereafter becoming known as "Blue Tyson".