Synopsis: "The crew of the U. S. space vessel Aquila returns from a deep-space mission to find that a devastating plant blight has stripped away all civilization. Its legacy a nightmarish wasteland. Traveling through the savaged countryside to wrest from death surviving kin and friend, the astronauts grimly cling to a glimmer of promise for a new start. Far to the northwest is Aurora, a secret base offering a way out of the decline into darkness. But even as they draw closer to their destination, old faces reappear from the past and something deadly, something ultimately threatening is unveiled." — quoted from the Gold Eagle's mass market paperback's back cover.