Nel Hanima grew up amidst chaos. The government collapsed when he was five, and he lived in an underground bunker until he was twelve. His adult life, by comparison, is stable. Government and public services have been restored. But still, the trees and grasses grow browner. The ocean continues to rise, swallowing up neighborhood after neighborhood of Nel's youth.A faint tug drags at him day after day--the suspicion that his life is without purpose or meaning. Hope for a better future fades with each passing day.One night, he falls asleep in his Seattle apartment and awakens in the City of Nowhere, an impossible conundrum world of non-human citizens, where time and space are an illusion and paradoxes run rampant.As Nel explores the city, he meets Giniip Pana, Rev Merveille, and Drogl Belgaer, humans from alternate versions of his world's timeline. Together with his new friends, Nel works to unravel the mysteries of Nowhere, to learn how he came to be there, and discover not only a way to return to Seattle, but also the purpose and meaning his life has lacked.