Retired film star Flora Fielding was diagnosed with cancer. Her solution: she had herself put into suspended animation, and invested her fortune in cancer research. She expected to return to life in five to ten years -- but is awakened into an utterly different world, 1433 years later. She gradually learns the facts about the new society: there are only one million people on the planet. This gives material wealth to everyone. However, the right to reproduce is a valuable commodity. Men compete for women's approval in every possible way, including risking their lives in deeds of daring. Everyone has an 'implant': a device that enables them to send and receive 'images', so that they are able to be with anyone else, anywhere. All the implants, and all the computerized machines on the planet, are linked to form a single intelligence: Artif, the 'executive arm of humanity'. Flora makes friends, and gradually learns that she was awakened for a purpose: she is the pawn in a political duel between Abel, President of Control, and Mirabelle, Deputy President. These two are opposed on every issue, including the way to raise twelve year old Tam?s, their son. Kiril, a young man tortured by jealous love, commits the first violent crime in over a thousand years, and only Flora's experience from pre-Cataclysmic times can sort out the resulting problems. This book of the surprising yet plausible future has an ending that'll wrench your heart, and then there is a final sting in the tail...