In the real world there are always thousands of stories in progress, all of them happening at once. We try to make the world of the wild cards as real as we possibly can.
The previous volume in the Wild Cards series, Aces Abroad, chronicled the events of the World Health Organization global junket, which left New York on December 1, 1986, and returned on April 29, 1987.
The first part of the volume in hand tells what happened in Manhattan from the beginning of October through the end of April, before the tour made its departure and while it was wending its somewhat troubled way around the world.
The concluding portions of our present mosaic relate the events of May and June, after the travelers came home.
The Editor