Jameson Daniel McCoy (Jinty) is the latest of evolution's attempts to produce a new and viable variant of the human race. Early in life he discovers that his paranormal abilities are bounded only by his imagination, and he gradually learns to control his environment with the power of his mind. Jinty produces several inventions which help to relieve poverty (and thus loosen the grip of certain regimes on their subjects). This provokes a number of assassination attempts and the novel opens with one such attempt upon Jinty's life. Whilst exploring the solar system with his mind, Jinty encounters...