Pebbles, known variously as "Double Dip" or "The Orient Man," is in truth an orphaned 16-year-old boy who has been granted a full scholarship to Different High, a fancy private school with a unique approach to fostering troubled youth. Different was founded by the infamous "Mr. Redwood," a man with 70 college degrees and counting, who seeks to rid Perfect City of imperfection, so that it will finally live up to its name. "Nip the problem in the bud" and "Difference does break a dam" are two of his choice quotes.  But as Pebbles enters the school, things quickly spiral out of control: For one, Pebbles will claim to have acquired a girlfriend in the school... Problem is, the "girlfriend" is his teacher: "Empress Jane, my mature girlfriend," as he calls her. Second, he likes to pass the time doing an unruly thing on school roofs, for which he has been kicked out of three schools and counting, but which will come in "handy" soon... Also, a fellow pupil named Mike, "the most unworthy heir to the most worthy throne," as Mr. Redwood calls him, does not like Pebbles very much. He claims "people like him" don't belong in such a suave place as Old Hope, where Different is located. But strange things begin happening to Mike, such as orange balloons "popping up" at his feet everywhere he goes, and falling head over heels for a girl he is not supposed to like. This is not even to speak of all the other aberrations that abound in the city, such as ... a boy who kills with a pair of angle-grinders, a man who forces indebted people to play "six-man Russian roulette" against his own will, along with the various other delinquents that roam the city and the hunters whose job it is to stop them, all the while corruption runs rampant as the Monarchy falters and Luddites build endlessly self-replicating UFOs to bring about "The Big Crunch" and destroy industrial society once and for all. All that's just the tip of it. This story also features bananas, ice cream, porn addiction, and many other wonderful things.