'All these hundreds of thousands in this city, here. Do they imagine that they live in a sane world? Or do they guess, glimpse, the truth . . . ?

America, after the Second World War. The Allies have lost, and their enemies have conquered the world. Those who survive live in fear. The Nazis have taken over New York, while the Japanese control California. Yet in a neutral buffer zone between these two rival superpowers lives the author of an underground bestseller that, it is rumoured, offers an alternate version of history. Does 'reality' lie with him, or is his world just one among many others?