The Gean culture was the most truly civilized that Earth had ever known. When it found itself under threat a starship was dispatched beyond the limits of earlier exploration to investigate, but something went terribly wrong. Now the mind or minds in charge of that mission need to restore a shattered reality, need to find their way home, need to find somewhere to be and someone to be with. But is there any hope of success across such an abyss of time and space? Does any kind of home remain, or are the works of humanity and humanity itself now no more than dust blowing in the winds of lost years?