The year is 12206 N, which corresponds to 2206 AD. Dr. Roland Davidson and his family live in a world in which disease has been eliminated. Robots provide for 99 percent of all human needs. From birth to a mandated death at the age of 150, a person has little work to do. Sogan, the Supreme Commander of Earth, declared, "The world is perfect." This should be Nirvana. But the listless existence of minimal labor is accompanied by rigid control, and people are tracked by means of a chip implanted at birth. Dr. Davidson has come upon a revolutionary hypothesis. He theorizes he can disassemble an object down to its individual atoms and reassemble them into something entirely different, like the goal of the ancient alchemists. He also believes he can transform a living organism into another creature. But he lacks laboratory facilities that can supply high bursts of energy and assistants to help with experiments. Suddenly, Davidson receives offers for all he needs-but from two entirely different sources, each with its own element of danger. A forbidden, underground society has offered sanctuary to Davidson and his family along with all needed resources for his experiments. But Supreme Commander Sogan also has heard of Davidson's theory and orders him to demonstrate the molecular transmutation process. Davidson and his family must choose between their sedate but controlled lives within Sogan's society or a rebel existence. What they all fail to realize is that the fate of the entire human race teeters precipitously upon the decisions and experiments of Dr. Davidson.