Jonathan Swain is headed back to where he was seven months ago, back when the world still existed. It's early spring 2127 as he sets out in search of his plutocrat grandfather's archives, determined to discover the truth about the old man's role in the disastrous world that was. Accompanied by a Hopi artist and a genius fifteen-year-old with a sketchy past, Jonathan's quest takes him first to Dallas, Texas, and then to Costa Rica, where he learns that the future of humankind may depend on what he finds.