Ivan Delphi, amateur sculptor and emissary from twenty-sixth century Earth, is sent to Dixi Novo to inspect the long-neglected colony world. Massive windstorms have frustrated attempts to terraform the planet. Descendants of the original settlers-religious pilgrims from the American South who traveled there a century earlier-have turned to worshiping an ancient crystalline sculpture carved onto a nearby mountainside. The leaders of this new society are anxious to win the approval of Earth's new government, but jealously protective of their rigid customs, their new faith, and their unchallenged authority over the planet's population. Delphi has many tools at his disposal: technology, diplomacy, charm, and trickery-but will any of them be enough to stop the colony from descending into chaos? Or will more forceful tactics be necessary?