Poor Man's Opera takes place somewhere in the future where Canada is known only as the Northlands and has been annexed by its authoritarian neighbour to the south, the Free Republic of America. The FRA has stripped the Northlands of all its natural resources, leaving a vast wasteland. Instead of provinces and territories, there are only a handful of self-governing city-states. The action takes place in the city-state of New Old York (a barely recognizable Toronto) and is narrated by a gender-fluid Tarot reader who is an unofficial advisor to a powerful political figure.