Squire Cornelius and his two companions flee the drudgery of Farmstead in the middle of the night and head for Cattivo, a densely populated city in the mountains; the perfect place to begin a life away from the cruelties of their former agricultural overlords. But Climbers are Climbers, and the big city contains only more cruelty and more violence. Every street is gang territory, controlled with savage efficiency by the slumlord squires and barons who sell protection, run crooked gambling operations, loan money, and break skulls. Cornelius and his companions struggle to stay one step ahead of imprisonment and death. Meanwhile, the powerful angel who has commanded Cornelius's story delights in the horrors he describes, the exact story of Hell she hopes will convey the despair of the real thing to her reader. But Cornelius, while certainly violent and cruel, is not a simple creature; he is motivated by his vast passions that, at times, do not appear Hellish at all. Where will the passions of Cornelius lead?