Set in a dystopian future many years after The End of Elections, everything is run by The Company and the State. Seth Hibard, a sludge farmer who lives in Hill Country, leads a life full of quiet contradictions. He is in turns shy and talkative, outgoing and awkward, and though not religious himself, he has a loving relationship with his very Christian wife, Jayn, with whom he shares a fondness for the Godly Stories, including one about Seth's biblical namesake. Seth is also fond however of an old book from before the End of Elections, An Atheist Christian Gunslinger,
which speaks to a more violent side of his nature that he has kept in check.
