Gwendalynn Anders, a mid-Western girl whos never seen the ocean, wonders what was in that joint she smoked a week before waking up on Elysiana. Jack Halcyon, living atop an abandoned hotel, wonders how hes able to ponder the incongruities of life after leaving a big chunk of his brain at the scene of an accident. Borough Council President Norman Harlan wonders what cruel God put him on an equal footing with Avery Volpe, the fearsome captain of the Beach Patrol. Twelve miles long and a mile wide, Elysiana is an isolated barrier island off the coast of New Jersey sitting astride the convergence of powerful fault lines. Its a place of beauty and insanity, shared by the angelic and profane, where cops, criminals, prodigies, and the promiscuous find themselves at the haphazard mercy of a lunatic providence.