In a dystopic world after a devastating world war, the American city of Kennedy has walled itself off from the decline of the former USA. Determined to continue as a functioning metropolis, Kennedy strictly patrols its boundaries and struggles to maintain the semblance of a modern city. Now, forty years after the end of the war, Kennedy is in crisis. Technologies are failing and replacements and repairs are not forthcoming. It is within this atmosphere of slow death that news of Re-United States of America emerges -- a RUSA which wants Kennedy to join.