内容简介：
Michael Poole, a culturally isolated deaf seventeen-year-old ward of the Gate, only wants few things in his life: a girlfriend, a chance to play hockey, and good times. But the blockheads and the Whysees who watch over him have other things in store for him. Like not going outside the Gate. Not getting into trouble. And to remain still and calmly wait for the day of his own taking. The story takes place in an alternative world where one of the many industrial military complexes contains the handicapped wards taken from all over the country. The novel explores the Gate in the depth of Michael Poole's mind, in silly riddles, messages on bathroom's walls and crude drawings only to discover the final health policy for the wards of the Gate, never welcomed by the general population of a perfect world.