...with the Silence, born of mysterious, space-originated phenomena that render Earth's dominant technologies useless -- inspiring paranoia and alien invasion fears within secret government agencies, which, in turn, inspire repressive actions against a perceived enemy populace.

...and with murder, as New Orleans mob boss and voudoun Queen, Marie Laveau, dies in a hail of gunfire -- and is remade through the wonders of nanotechnology.

In a new world that necessity has transfigured -- an exhilarating, seething stew of microscopic machinery and genetic engineering; of totalitarianism, eco-terrorism and violence -- Marie Laveau's hunger for vengeance is giving way to something greater. For Destiny has named her savior of the outcasts, the oppressed, the crazies, the hunted and the Silence's mutant children, who all flock to her dream of a future as sweet as an Ellington riff...and a safe haven called Crescent City.