Iris Cornelia Starkaugen is a vagrant who wanders the streets of South Beach, handing out bits of poetry to passersby in exchange for money. Her poems contain important messages that they should heed, for they portend their future and, more specifically, describe the moment of their death. For this reason, she is known as the Madwoman; we know her as the new avatar of the seer Cassandra, who warned people of their future but was condemned never to be believed.

Some of her poetic auguries fall into the hands of a publisher who wants to make a book out of them. Her prevailing message is that the rising seas precipitated by the warming of the planet are coming faster than anybody anticipated. Soon, all of Miami Beach, along with most of the eastern seabord, will be underwater. It is the Earth trying to shake off her worse parasite-Man-by sending tremors, storms and inundations in the attempt to dislodge him and wipe the Earth clean.

Iris, unheeding of her own welfare, grappling with people who misunderstand her and attack her, hindered by the frailty of her own body, and ultimately, facing the coming of the tidal waves, perseveres in her attempt to save as many souls as she can. Selfless and empathic, she loves people enough to fight for their survival.