When a nanotech-induced plague leaves her friend Blaze in a suspended state of decay, Verity leaves her isolated home to seek salvation in the legendary, bio-engineered city of Cincinnati. Verity must navigate a landscape where the boundaries between biological life and machine intelligence have dissolved, forcing her to confront the remnants of a failed utopian experiment. As she enters the Enlivened City, she faces a reality governed by the erratic, dream-like projections of its creator. The narrative follows her progression through this surreal environment, where she must master the city's complex nanotech systems or succumb to its lethal, repeating fantasies.

This work is often recognized for its inventive fusion of cyberpunk tropes with a distinct, surrealist aesthetic that sets it apart from traditional genre fiction. The narrative structure mirrors the improvisational nature of its titular musical genre, creating a reading experience that is as unpredictable as the city it depicts. Readers and critics frequently highlight the author's ability to render complex nanotechnological concepts into visceral, tangible imagery. The novel serves as a meditation on the fragility of human progress when confronted with the unchecked potential of its own creations. Its enduring presence in the genre is attributed to its refusal to adhere to standard linear storytelling, favoring instead a dense, atmospheric exploration of a world in flux.