Centuries after an unknown catastrophe reduced human civilization to a sun-scorched wasteland of glass and rust, the remnants of humanity fight over water, scrap metal, and fuel. Nico Robin travels the endless dunes on a heavily modified, low-slung motorcycle, tracking down the buried skeletons of pre-collapse skyscrapers poking through the sand like giant ribs.

Her life's obsession is the ultimate rarity in a burnt world: paper books. While warlords and raiders burn ancient libraries to heat their camps during freezing desert nights, Robin braves unstable, subterranean ruins to salvage and preserve the last written records of the old world.

While exploring a newly uncovered vault beneath a half-buried skyscraper, her quiet salvage operation is interrupted when an unexpected survivor slips down through the concrete breach into her sector.