It is the end of the thirtieth century and humanity has divided into three. The fleshers, all that are left of the naturally evolving Homo sapiens, remain in the jungles and seas of Earth, living out their extended but mortal lives.

The rest of humankind have achieved apparent immortality, some as glesner robots - human minds within machinse - and the majority as polises - direct copies of human personalities living out their eternities in communities run by vast supercomputers. Amongst them is Yatima, and orphan, created by a random mutation of the Konishi polis base mind seed.

When an astrophysical disaster threatens to destroy Earth, Yatima sets out to discover a home where random acts of God will never again threaten their existance.