After the "Accident," all males on earth become sterile. Society ages and falls apart bit by bit. First toy companies go under. Then record companies. Then cities cease to function. Now earth's population lives in spread-out, isolated villages, with its youngest members in their 50's. When the people of Sparcot begin to make claims of gnomes and man-eating rodents lurking around their village, Greybeard and his wife set out for the coast with the hope of finding something better. With a New Introduction from the Author! "When is science fiction not science fiction? The answer must be: When it becomes too frighteningly believable. This is.î - Sacramento Bee