War for the future of Diablo Keep! Would-be revolutionaries and arch-predators plot to take down this greatest of Keeps and those who cherish it, that they might feed on its bones and carrion. Will the Eisensteins and the Jamiesons and Diablo Keep prevail, or will all their hopes and dreams become no more than dust in the wind?

Diablo Keep is haunted by four billion years of Life's dreams and prayers and tragedies, banshees bewailing all the dying world's ending. Yet hope is still possible, for a new spirit informs the leaders of this greatest of keeps, and comes with a message for all the Earth. Paul Royer, his despair transformed into wonder and joy, comes back from his strange encounter on the cliffs above Diablo Keep with gifts for all the ages to come and a bridge to eternity for the children of the dying Earth.