"The place is Earth. The time is the near future -- all too near. Industrial development has accelerated out of all control, spawning dangerous new technologies and laying the planet to waste. While the inner cities collapse in guerilla warfare, a dark age of superstition dawns. As destruction of the environment reaches the point of no return, multinational corporations and super-rich individuals unite in a last desperate effort -- not to save humankind, but to buy themselves immortality in a poisoned world. If Earth is to survive, somebody has to stop them. From London to New York to Turkey, Ace follows the Doctor as he prepares, finally, to strike back."--Page 4 of cover