In a future America, the Crazies live unseen in metal caves, providing goods and weapons free to the nomadic Tribes. Each tribesman has a 3-letter name and practices one of the six weapons: sword, staff, sticks, daggers, club or morning star. Battles in the Circle decide all arguments. In Sos the Rope, first of the Battle Circle trilogy, a man loses his name and right to weapons, leading him ultimately to seek out the riddle of the Crazies' mountain.