The first book in the Kitty Wu Series. What if America became a socialist republic? In the new America, citizenship means your every need is cared for. All you have to do is take an emotion-numbing pill and surrender your rights. For Kitty Wu, life as a citizen is not for her. Surviving as a prostitute, she hopes to someday leave the sexually taboo world behind. When her primary customer, the vicious Mayor Elka Weinhauer, begins to hurt her friends, Kitty discovers the mayor's actions could not only threaten the lives of those she loves, but the American empire itself.