In interviews, Kunstler describes his imaginary world as an 'enlightened nineteenth century'.

Kunstler explores themes of local and sustainable living. Earle's experiences are the focus of this struggle. All of these forces struggle to respect life in a way that was taken for granted before events changed, and build pragmatically for a new future. Much of the rest of the nation seems to be falling apart, with nuclear blasts destroying Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., cities devolving, and a fractured United States. As the story begins Brother Jobe comes to town, the leader of the New Faith Church, a religious group that has fled the south and settle into the old high school. The third faction is led by Steven Bullock, a wealthy farmer with vision who has set his farm up like an English manor and strives to become self-sufficient. Within their community is a separate group of scrappers and thugs led by Wayne Karp run the 'General Store' out of the town dump and live in a group of trailers known as Karptown. The citizens of Union Grove are living on the tail end of a national catastrophe, with their community slowly falling apart from neglect and natural decay. Narrated by Robert Earle, a local carpenter who has lost his wife and son, the novel focuses on four separate 'cultures' that represent the directions society could go after a breakdown of modern social norms.

Kunstler world made by hand