Hey Nostradamus is about a school shooting, the kind we are all too familiar with, and its aftermath. Three alienated, isolated students in fatigues come into school and start shooting up the cafeteria. Under stress, two of the shooters (the point is made a couple of times that they can't be "gunmen", but that "gunboys" isn't a word) kill the third. A courageous student kills another with a thrown rock to the head. Surviving students, emboldened by the rock thrower, mobs the third, crushing him with a cafeteria table. Coupland explores his subject in a creative way, radiating outward from the time and place of the tragedy. The book is divided into four sections, each narrated by a different person, each with a different involvement. First is Cheryl, the blonde, born-again shooting victim.