In 2002, the world changes forever. Every man, every boy, every mammal with a Y chromosome everywhere on earth suddenly collapses and dies. With the loss of nearly half the planet\'s population, the gears of society grind to a halt, and a world of women is left to pick up the pieces and try to keep civilisation from collapsing entirely.

The "gendercide", however, is not absolutely complete. For some unknown reason, one young man named Yorick Brown and his pet male monkey, Ampersand, are spared. Overnight his anonymous twentysomething becomes the most importand person on the planet - the key, it is hoped, to unlocking the secret of the mysterious sex-specific plague.