National Network for Equitable Library Service

In a brief, panicked moment, Rick mistakes the kindness of an apparent stranger for a threatening act, and inadvertently commits murder.

Two old friends become puppeteers, each performing with the same beloved folk characters, Franz and Schnitzel. Fipsi, ambitious and naive, aligns herself with the rule government, the Common Good.

Standing at the edge of the ship, contemplating a watery demise, Billy is called back to reality when his dead mentor Sid Diamond appears as a handpuppet.

Humanity is facing extinction, and Penny Plain, elderly and blind, can only sit and wait for the end.