It revolves around the life of Ken Nott, a radio DJ on a London station called Capital Live!. The first person narrative begins on September 11, 2001, and Banks uses the protagonist's conversations -- both on the radio and off -- to discuss the political consequences of the terrorist attacks in the US on that day. The cover of the novel also conjures images of that attack; it shows an old picture of two of the towers of London's Battersea Power Station with an aeroplane above them.