In an alternative 1919, the very air is toxic and the world lies in ruins. Zenith City, dominated by the corporation Illusion Inc., has seized control of the global economy. The Great War ended after the corporation invented Synthetic Men who defeated the enemy but went on to wipe out most of the population.

After their creations murder his wife, one man swears revenge on the corporation and its CEO Ronald Pryor. With the aid of a small band of operators, including Spider Nelson and Glory McBride, Alastor-a Magician whose real name is Talbot Carruthers-wages a personal vendetta against the corporation, battling Pryor and his right-hand man Gavril Princip, while searching for the missing pages of the Book of Magik in a perilous world of flying cars and ancient sorcery.