The story begins when a nun delivers a mysterious orphan named Toto to a futuristic airport, where we meet the rest of the passengers who will accompany him on the flight to the Capital. There's the old married couple of Mr. And Mrs. Stow who left the center of known civilization to travel around the Frontier visiting their fully grown children. In rather sharp contrast to these normal folks is Jan, a petty gangster with a crescent scar on his face and a machete he'll pull at the drop on a hat, and Maria, a blonde boozer. A pair of cops called Wiseman and Goseau will also be on board, along with the "suckling" they're escorting—a hooded prisoner who has felt the bite of the Nobility, and Bierce, an arrow-hurling warrior who is past his prime.