The novel is divided into what are essentially three discrete short stories, unified by common threads such as character names and types, story location (New York City), story themes (such as shared humanity), and the presence of Walt Whitman (whether through actual physical presence, quotation of his works via narrator or character, or the spirit of his ideas expressed through narrator or character).
The first short story, "In the Machine", is a ghost story. "In the Machine" takes place in New York City during the Industrial Revolution, as human beings confront the alienating realities of the new machine age. The principal characters are Lucas (a disfigured young boy), Catherine (a young woman who was to marry Lucas' elder brother), and Simon (Lucas' recently deceased elder brother).
The second short story, "The Children's Crusade", is a noir thriller. The story is set in early-21st-century New York City. The story plays with the conventions of the noir thriller as it tracks the pursuit of a terrorist band that is detonating bombs, seemingly at random, around the city. The principal characters are Cat (an African-American woman working in a New York City police department), Simon (Cat's businessman boyfriend), and Luke (a child terrorist).
The third short story, "Like Beauty", is futuristic science fiction. The story is set in a New York 150 years in the future. In the story, New York City is overwhelmed with refugees from the first inhabited planet to be contacted by the people of Earth. The principal characters are Simon (an adult male cyborg), Catareen (an adult female alien lizard living as a refugee on earth), and Luke (a homeless boy).
