In the not so distant, and nowhere near as bright, future, young Chantal Kiffer grew up, a "latch key kid," in a "Cold Zone;" something that could best be described as a lawless modern day slum district. Orphaned before her teens, Chantal was adopted by her only aunt, who threw her out when she turned sixteen. Abandoned at eighteen by a cowardly boyfriend when she told him she was carrying his child, she was forced to turn to prostitution as an alternative to homelessness in the Cold Zone, which was virtually a death sentence in such a place. Rescued from a considerable beating from a marauding rape gang by an escaped lab experiment; a true femme fatale, Chantal settles down to share her home with her rescuer for the winter. Erika is a highly illegal "project;" a cloned human, modified with cybernetic implants and technology to be an assassin, with a dark secret in her past. Erika looks after, and nurses, a badly beaten and helpless Chantal, in exchange for a couch to sleep on and some clean clothes to wear. Surprising both parties, Chantal becomes Erika"s first friend, and then later, her first lover. Becoming a highly successful prostitute, Erika takes her one true love away from the life she knew in the lawless Cold Zone, and shows her what life could be like in a more civilised area; after a new home, and considerable cosmetic surgery for Chantal are acquired from the couple"s combined earnings.