Lieutenant Colonel Perrin Shin is not happy.

Not happy about the changes he's seen in Edge since he arrived sixteen years ago. Not about his daughter and son turning into teenagers. And certainly not about the Guarders turning the village teens into thieves, or the world not noticing anything but the latest entertainment.

Which also means no one's noticing the ever-tightening control of Chairman Mal and the Administrators.

While Perrin and Mahrree notice, as does their claimed brother Shem Zenos, there's nothing that two soldiers and a school teacher can do about those who rule the world.

So when a disaster hits Edge and half of the world, then Perrin receives an urgent message demanding that he return immediately to Idumea–Well, he's not sure what's worse: the fact that he has to leave his village that desperately needs him in order to face the government he hates, or that his wife and children are going with him.