Synopsis: The planet Arcadia has six moon, describing erratic orbits. But once every fifty-two years, the Moons of Arcadia come together in a constellation that creates havoc on the surface - raging tides, storms... and worse. for the inhabitants of Arcadia are themselves affected in some strange way by the unusual gravitic pulls. Or so it would seem. For few on this new, recently colonized world can remember exactly what happened fifty-two years before, those old enough to remember are curiously reticent. An meanwhile the moons grow closer.... (from the back cover of the Ballantine Books first edition)