Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town

Alan is a middle-aged entrepreneur in contemporaryToronto who has devoted himself to fixing up a house in a bohemianneighborhood. This naturally brings him in contact with the house full ofstudents and layabouts next door, including a young woman who, in a moment ofstress, reveals to him that she has wings-wings, moreover, that grow back aftereach attempt to cut them off.

Alan understands. He himself has a secret or two.His father is a mountain, his mother is a washing machine, and among his brothersare a set of Russian nesting dolls.

Now two of the three nesting dolls, Edward andFrederick, are on his doorstep-well on their way to starvation because theirinnermost member, George, has vanished. It appears that yet another brother,Davey, whom Alan and his other siblings killed years ago, may have returned . benton revenge.

Under such circumstances it seems only reasonablefor Alan to involve himself with a visionary scheme to blanket Toronto withfree wireless Internet connectivity, a conspiracy spearheaded by a brillianttechnopunk who builds miracles of hardware from parts scavenged from the city''sdumpsters. But Alan''s past won''t leave him alone-and Davey is only one of thepowers gunning for him and all his friends.