Doctor Alex Degen's life spans two centuries. The story begins in Alex's eighty-ninth year and the beginning of the twenty-second century - a brutal era beset by erratic and disastrous climate changes and devastatingly uncontrollable pandemics. But not all of humanity are suffering under the same distressful and bleak conditions. The elite members of the powerful and clandestine Zevenbergen are using these apocalyptic times to their advantage - making exponential advancements in the fields of science and technology as they zealously pursue their very ambitious and monumental goals. Holding the key to one of the organization's most desired objectives, Alex Degen (brilliant physician and genetic engineer) is offered membership into the Zevenbergen's exclusive community. But while acceptance of their offer would seem to be the logical choice, Alex's decision is complicated by moral and ethical concerns. And these struggles will not only cause him to vacillate between his duty to the welfare of those members of humanity excluded from the Zevenbergen's protection and his desire to complete his life-altering research work; but will also cause him to be torn between the two great loves of his life (Miranda Greene, his fiancee and fellow genetic engineer and Dedra Jenkins, the daughter of the powerful leader of the Zevenbergen's Inner Council). The outcome of any action, or inaction, can never be completely assured. But during these treacherous times a misstep can prove to be especially disastrous - a truth which becomes dramatically evident to both Alex and the members of the Zevenbergen community when the terrible cost of the realization of one of the Zevenbergen's goals is realized.