Terrible iron gods take children as tribute to the black pyramids, never to be seen again. Doomsday cultists sacrifice heretics and electronics to a golden retriever. Stark lights dance in the mountains. Stalkers scavenge mutant infested necropolises for the last trinkets of civilization. Nihilism and depravity abound. Two souls are caught in the whirling gyre, an apprentice stalker, and an ace pilot; distant threads, forever entwined in this brooding...