2039Eleanor and Jean-Richard St Clair are chosen to be ecological ambassadors to their peer group of hedonistic aristocrats. The elites will shortly be invited to retreat from the world's temperate lands to the safety of the Swiss Alps.The facts behind a new extinction level event are being compiled in compartmentalised secrecy by Eugene Mencker, an MI agent on a mission to learn the truth behind Year Zero. From the Antarctic to Kuwait City, from Central Brazil to a forgotten city, high in Peru, Mencker picks up pieces of the puzzle. When accidents start to happen along the way, he becomes aware that he is being shadowed at a discreet distance, and his mission to deliver the final report to St Clair might never be fulfilled.