Synopsis: From the flaps of the Tor first edition: This novel chronicles the future destruction and eventual rebirth of human civilization. It is linked to the future world of both Beloved Son and Drowning Towers, as well as others of his works. About a hundred years in the future, two men, one of them a policeman, are investigating a death involving a large international genetic engineering corporation. They become bothersome to the corporate owners and are taken out of action not by being killed but by being put to sleep for hundreds of years. But this may be a fate worse than death. They awaken to a distant future in which contemporary industrial civilization has been "cleansed" from the earth and what humanity survives is learning to live a very low-technology lifestyle, being bred eugenically to this life. The cleansing was done on purpose, an international plot by the rich and powerful who in fact rule the world - and who, in this distant future, are dying off. This is a complex and morally tortuous vision, and Turner's characters find it nearly impossible to adapt without killing someone, perhaps even themselves.