Five years have passed since Josh Green the Scribe and Beauty the Centaur set out across Southern California to find the creatures who had destroyed their homes and carried off their human wives.

Now Beauty's wife has abandoned him for the pleasures of mind-link with the mysterious Pluggers. Worse -- before disappearing she removed the helmet that protected Josh from the mental summons of the City With No Name.

Soon Beauty and Josh's brother each set off to search for their relatives amid the riotous decay of an Animal world with no use -- and little room -- for man.