marin county (calif.)

Still feeling guilty over the death of her little sister leaves eighteen-year-old Annie vulnerable when she takes a nanny job in beautiful Marin County, California, and meets her very controlling employer.

A disparate cast of charatcers--Hoppy Harrington, a deformed mutant with telekinetic powers, Walt Dangerfield, a selfless disc jockey, and Dr. Bluthgeld, a megalomaniac physicist--attempt to survive a post-nuclear holocaust after an attack from China.

When fifteen-year-old Ruby, along with her mother, stepfather, and younger brother, move to Marin County, California, leaving her older brother back home with her father and stepmother, she feels lost among the wealthier, more sophisticated people she meets, but gradually she begins to see a side of herself that never really fit into her old life, and she opens herself up to the new experiences that God is offering her.