In the process of searching for Pinch, a long-lost mythic figure who has attained a talismanic status, Gibs has resorted to making a living doing contract work with his friend Alan, the young man who followed him out of the Wyoming commune. Hired by a family as escorts on a cross-country trip to Texas, they are ambushed by a group of raiders. The family is captured, children and all, and Gibs and Alan are left behind with only some pistols, a handful of bullets between them, and no food or water to speak of. They pursue the attackers, following the tracks left by the raiders until the trail goes cold a few days later. But evidence of further murders abounds in the region.  The owner of a waystation informs them of a mining settlement out east in the fallen town of Grand Saline, which operates on slave labor. Reasoning that their attackers were likely slavers, Gibs resolves to go to Grand Saline in search of the family. Settling in nearby Iron Bridge, as there is no evidence of slavery within its borders, they begin to plan. But nothing in Iron Bridge makes sense. A bizarre dual-class system is at play, its people are standoffish, and the town seems at odds with itself at every turn.   Gibs and Alan are left to sound out the mysteries of this strange new place, determine what, if any, weaknesses Grand Saline has to exploit, and save the children from the slavers' salt mines. The hit Commune series returns with book 6! Rejoin Gibs in the apocalypse as he explores the horrors of what humanity is capable of.