This book for young adults paints a picture of a post-nuclear world in which the surviving people are confined within a sustaining dome. The dome is governed by an invisible totalitarian Party and its thought police, the Mentargh. Claudia, on the surface a dutiful student of the prevailing Ideo, questions the establishment and longs for a return to the pre nuclear disaster world. The strain of life inside the dome on human society are shown through her eyes.She sees, however, the brutal fates of those friends who do try to change the system. Eventually she finds her own solution to her dilemma. Issues surrounding relationships and the environment are tackled sensitively and the people are beautifully characterised.