2051. The world has become consumed by the ever rising tide of the global population flood. Fertile land has been reclaimed by rising oceans and expanding deserts, resulting in famine and poverty on an unprecedented scale. Water is now mankind's most precious resource, and conflict erupts wherever it flows. Only one bubble of the old capitalist world survives. The Queen of the World is the largest ship ever to grace the oceans, a colossal city at sea where the wealthy elite live in exile from the chaos which surrounds them. Onboard this stateless paradise the Five Founding Fathers set about pursuing their Cornucopian research unimpeded. The contempt of the outside world is offset by NanoCell Corporation, one of the five, who promise to develop nano-technology to purify sea water at the molecular level and make the deserts bloom with the food of the world. But as they move closer to their goal, the bitterness of fanatical Malthusians grows...