Teen members of a group of archaic humans, Lynx and Quiller, flee the increasing coldness and monstrous predators for a new land, where they meet a strange old man who tells them how to save the world.

It is the second stage of human colonization - the first age, humanity's initial attempt to people the stars, ended in disaster when it was discovered that Earth's original super-luminal drive did permanent genetic damage to all who used it - mutating Earth's far-flung colonists in mind and body. Now, one of Earth's first colonies has given humanity back the stars, but at a high price - a monopoly over all human commerce. And when a satellite in Earth's...