After a flu pandemic, a large-scale terrorist attack and the total collapse of Wall Street, New York City is reduced to a shadow of its former self. As the city struggles to dig itself out of the wreckage, a nameless, obsessive-compulsive veteran with a spotty memory has taken up residence in the New York Public Library. Dubbed 'Dewey Decimal', he gets by as a bagman and muscle for the unscrupulous District Attorney. He'd be perfectly content alone amongst his books - but this is not on the cards and what unfolds is a bloody tangle of violence.