A rookie journalist has returned to the abandoned frontier of Earth with the dream of writing a career-making story about the descendants of those who were left behind. There she finds a decaying society ruled through fear by a mysterious, ageless despot.

Dave is a bad cop fighting a deadly heroin addiction while working a case deep inside the mafia. After killing numerous drug dealers and even undercover police officers for the mob, he is kept from his money for trivial reasons. As his drug problem gets worse, and Dave sinks deeper into a murderous lifestyle, he runs from the city to live with an old friend. But Dave can't hide for long, and he is soon lured back to town in a dangerous war to get his money back from the men that wronged him.

A young woman forms a bond with three elderly shopkeepers when she teaches them how to swim - even though there are no bodies of water to be found.