Ten stories that take place in worlds not quite our own and yet each one illuminates what it is to be human.

As they celebrate the opening of their underground nightclub, the Zeroes, six teenagers with unique abilities, learn about the sinister power of Swarm, who uses a crowd's rage to kill--and who loves killing Zeroes.

A young woman who has endured unspeakable cruelties is magically granted a safe haven apart from the real world and allowed to raise her two daughters in this alternate reality, until the barrier between her world and the real one begins to break down.

"On remote Rollrock Island, men go to sea to make their livings--and to catch their wives. The witch Misskaella knows the way of drawing a girl from the heart of a seal, of luring the beauty out of the beast. And for a price a man may buy himself a lovely sea-wife. He may have and hold and keep her. And he will tell himself that he is her master. But from his first look into those wide, questioning, liquid eyes, he will be just as transformed as she....

Stories within a story, written as separate chapters by a number of noted authors who each contribute to the life of the mysterious George "Gee" Keane, photographer, soldier, and adventurer.

After the shocking conclusion to Swarm, the zeroes are scattered, on the run, and desperate. They're up against challenges from within and from the world around them, and one thing is certain, an epic showdown is guaranteed.