The year is 2032 A.D. The Gloria Mundi, a star ship built and manned by the new United States of Europe, touches down on the planet, Alatair Five.

Disaster strikes, leaving only one apparent survivor - an Englishman named Paul Marlow, whose adventures in the lair of the strange primeval race known as the Bayani leads him firstly to their God, the omnipotent and omniscient Oruri, and eventually to an unlimited power that is so great it must include an in-built death sentence. The forces that have remained static for centuries overcome both the forces of the future and the quest for unlimited knowledge.