It is the future. The not too distance future.

The old order has changed. Over the years, national governments had shown their increasing ineffectiveness in dealing with the problems of living on this planet: Poverty, Hunger, Disease, Fear, Hatred, and War. Public support for traditional political institutions eroded until one day there was no support.

But even then, there were people who were waiting to fill the void; people who held great personal power; a power of a more subtle and sweeping nature than the power of even the most tyrannical political leaders. They were the businessmen, the heads of the major corporations, insinuating their way, and more than figureheads by this time, watched in impotent awe as corporations competed with, warred on and gobbled up each other until only a handful of the major corporations remained. Between them, they literally carved up the world. There are three corporate head: The Yakuza, The Shaolin Masters, and The Sicilians. The three made a truce and now rule the world. Yes there are smaller independent corporations, whether they know it or not, they belong to one of the major corporations.
 

The problems that had plagued mankind for eons were seemingly solved. The corporations provided for all the needs of their workers. They asked for only one thing in return: Obedience. Blind, service obedience. And most people were willing to surrender whatever freedom they had and give their corporate masters exactly what they wanted. But not everyone.

Those who wouldn't bend, wouldn't fit, wouldn't tolerate the corporate structure, fell between the cracks; they formed a counterpart to that precision, antiseptic society. Their world has no set rules, no controlled economy, and no officially sanctioned lifestyle. Their world is the underground.

The people are poor, and each day is another struggle to survive. But they have some freedoms. And among them are the freedom to hope and the hope for a better tomorrow.