After a fanatic television preacher and his deranged cult destroy the sprawling corporate state of Mercanto Valley, the stunned survivors escape to the vast Capucin wilderness. They work to rebuild a new world with help from an ancient order of anti-religious monks, the scientists from an experimental eco-village where city people came for weekend nature retreats, a large gathering of artists, musicians, and writers who came for their annual festival, reclusive mountain people, paranoid bunker dwellers, and remnants of the cult who isolated themselves in a desolate canyon. When one of the monks is kidnapped, and the sacred Tree Of Life stolen, the survivors are forced to confront the same issues that led to the destruction of Mercanto Valley.