Welcome to Terminal City, a decaying world where the citizens wallow amidst a mind-boggling profusion of discarded consumer goods; a ruthless world where television is exploited to its fullest to sell yet more needless junk to eager consumers; a bewildering land where the unreal is real and the real, unreal. Alex Stevens is hurled into this bedlam where he finds himself pitted against the maniacal Ross Gilmore, Mayor of Terminal City, and the evil Bruce Coddle, agent of Gilmore's Social Peace Enforcement Unit.