New York City has collapsed, and a veteran, nicknamed Dewey Decimal because he works in the New York Public Library, agrees to become a henchman for a New York D. A., but soon comes to regret his participation in the violence and mayhem involved in his work.

After a flu pandemic, a large-scale terrorist attack, and the total collapse of Wall Street, New York City is reduced to a shadow of its former self. As the city struggles to dig itself out of the wreckage, a nameless, obsessive-compulsive veteran with a spotty memory, a love for literature, and a strong if complex moral code (that doesn’t preclude acts of extreme violence) has taken up residence at the main branch of the New York Public Library on Forty-second Street.

Dubbed “Dewey Decimal” for his desire to reorganize the library’s stock, he gets by as bagman and muscle for New York City’s unscrupulous district attorney. He takes no pleasure in this kind of civic dirty work. He’d be perfectly content alone amongst his books. But this is not in the cards, as the DA calls on Dewey for a seemingly straightforward union-busting job.

What unfolds throws Dewey into a mess of danger, shifting allegiances, and old vendettas, forcing him to face the darkness of his own past and the question of his buried identity.