A novel masquerading as an industrial biography, this Canadian variant of Nabokov's Pale Fire traces the lives of two school friends in the 1960's as the one goes on to a successful career, while his biographer finds neither rewards nor satisfaction. A spaceship offers to take us on a one-way trip of the universe. Should we leave and leave all we love behind? One Canadian ascends the career ladder for his engineering firm building harbors in Thailand and throughout Asia. The other leaves for the US, and ends up mind shattered after fighting in Vietnam, his only asset his friendship with the other man.