They summon and she travels: Snake, the healer. Through the blasted landscape of a post-holocaust world, she carries her three serpents. From the venom of two, she distills her medicines; but it is the third, the alien dreamsnake—whose bite can ease the fear and pain of death—that is the most valued.

When the dreamsnake is killed by those she has come to help, her powers as a healer are all but lost. Her only hope now lies in the treacherous journey to far-off Center City, where Snake will be pursued by two implacable followers: one driven mad by love, the other by fear and need.