"R" is a zombie. He has no name, no memories, and no pulse, but he has dreams. He is different from his fellow Dead. Amongst the ruins of an abandoned city, R meets a girl. Warm and fierce and very much alive, Julie is a blast of colour in a dreary grey landscape; she means more than flesh and blood. Something imperceptible shifts, a switch is flicked, and R suddenly finds he wants to save Julie instead of eating her; he wants to protect her, whatever happens. This has never happened before. This is against all the rules and beyond all expectations. R begins to have new thoughts and feelings and powerful longings, and together he and Julie attempt to bring the whole decaying world back from the dead.