From the introduction: This book is about the mysteries, the secrets, and the lies that are pervasive in the ruined world of Have Not. Every child knows the basic story – that there was an Age of Wonders and that it ended when the domes went dark. That there was an Age of War, and that it ended when there was nothing left to destroy. And that there is an Age of Now, and that it will end when the last survivors give up the fight and lay down in their shallow graves and the lights go out once and for all.