This imaginative novel is set in a world dominated by a democratic government obsessed with equality and respect for human rights and indigenous cultures. It follows the lives of a frontiersman who becomes a revered protector of native tribes, an idealistic government leader who is deeply concerned about the treatment of a racial minority of which he is a member, a foreign despot who fiercely defends his homeland's rigid class structure, and others who are destined to play a role in an unexpected threat to that democratic government from outside its borders. Strong characters, political intrigue, crucial battles, and threats of nuclear devastation combine in a drama that deals with universal issues of egalitarianism, pacifism, racism, and cultural conflict.