The Sho Hondo Convention is over. Three thousand Buddhist Americans have returned from Japan, exhausted but triumphant. Relentlessly the next campaign begins: six months from now, a "Festival on Ice" will be held at the San Diego Sports Arena.
Unknown to all, deadly cancer has invaded the body of George M. Williams, supernova nucleus of NSA. Urgent surgery is required, but this would delay the San Diego Convention.
Will he save himself, or defy death to pursue the dream of a destitute priest who vowed seven hundred years ago to save humankind?