After a divorce and a career change, Alex Clark, is finding some normalcy in his life when he meets a strange man who weaves a story of aliens "seeding" the human population of Earth. Jack Goodman is a "Gardener" — a machine sent to Earth long ago from a distant planet to tend to a new "crop" of humans. But his masters on Uor can't resist the temptation to tamper and they amuse themselves with contests based on social and political happenings on Earth. Alex learns that much of what he was taught about history and religion is wrong.
Apollo of Helios and his twin brother, Ares — wealthy noblemen on Uor — have inherited the Earth from their father. The "Garden of Eden" — the name they gave the planet thousands of years ago — is tended by quantum androids that look like humans but have incredible powers. The Uorians sent three of these "Gardeners" to Earth over 50,000 years ago with a stock of 9,000 frozen human embryos, which is the foundation for all humans on the planet today.
Jack, who serves Apollo, recruits Alex into a game that holds the Earth's future in the balance. If Alex and Jack win, Earth's energy problems could be solved forever; however, if they fail, new weapons of mass destruction will proliferate around the globe.