Barb Wire owns the Hammerhead, a nightclub in Steel Harbor — "the last free city" in a United States ravaged by the civil war — and she brings in extra cash by hiring out as a mercenary and bounty hunter. Her club is raided by Chief of Police Willis, who is looking for the fugitive Dr. Corrina "Cora" Devonshire. Devonshire, a former government scientist, has information about a bioweapon being developed by her former superior, Colonel Pryzer of the Congressional Directorate; she is trying to escape to Canada in order to make this information public.
