Beyond a Steel Sky takes place within a far-future Earth, in which mega-cities, such as Union City, exist within a world that has been ravaged by nuclear war and disasters. While those who reside in such cities are subject to their laws and views on society by major corporations, those who reside outside them in the vast wastes (referred to as The Gap), live within tribal communities that survive on trading, hunting and other skills, with such people referred to by city dwellers as Gaplanders. The game's story is set ten years after the events of Beneath a Steel Sky, and focuses on the life of Robert Foster - a Gaplander who formally resided in Union City as a child, until certain events led to him being exiled unwillingly and raised by a local tribe that found him. The plot, written by Charles Cecil, focuses on the concept of how an AI would interpret a prime directive to make people happy.