For younger readers. Expletives deleted. Seven hundred years after the collapse of galactic civilization, the human race is desperately clinging to existence on the edge of the galaxy. Having resisted and conquered an unimaginable alien threat, humans still remain divided by politics and culture. Now, possibly the greatest threat to human existence is the human race itself. John Neider, a scholar made hero by circumstances, finds himself in a desperate situation that will put the survival of all mankind at risk. On a nearby planet, the privileged daughter of an aristocrat is completely unaware of how drastically her world could change, literally overnight. Their two worlds are on a collision course, and the fate of humanity is at stake.