The scratchy maps at the start of the book show how the world of Brooklyn and Manhattan has been separated into gang territories – gangs of Vampyres, the undead forced that way through some form of viral contagion. The Society, that Joe Pitt works for as a gopher, hard man and possibly just mule, able to be played like a puppet on a string, that have their world centred on Greenwich, are rebuffing an approach from the Docks, over the Brooklyn Bridge. This is easily done, with a few quick axe slashes, but no-one, not Pitt, not the moll of the gang, Lydia, and not even the head honcho, Terry, can predict just how volatile the whole of New York is becoming.