Charles Standing Horse, a young Lakota man, explores various natural and artificial systems, sometimes accompanied with companions, though he feels all his experiences are his own. During Charles' and his friends' and enemies' tours, many of the systems are accessible, yet others seem rigidly or capriciously exclusive. Two things they all have in common is the use of energy that evolves beyond humanity and also degenerates to waste-monsters who gobble the scenery to reform it in their images; perpetual revenge is another standard which all systems seem to share with intrigues of human's, machines', and deities' fueling karmic levers."