The Relief Zones (RZ's) are billed as a place of refuge for American citizens, but in reality, they are hell on earth.

The United Federation, the new world's multinational government, created the RZ's as a way to control the world's population. They are advertised as safe havens, flush with food and medical care. Instead, they are hotbeds of pestilence, violence, and agony. Self-reliant people all around the world, nicknamed "Bohemians," see through the governments rouse. Preferring to control their own fate, they resist the government's urgings to resettle in the RZ's.