A crippled young man undergoes psychotherapy at the Fountains Institute - he tells of a small town where 'medical experiments' are helping to save the universe from civil war. But is this a case of the dream inventing the dreamer? Or vice versa? One world is transforming, softly, insidiously, into some sort of mechanoid society, while the other world is under the ruthless dictatorship of the ACGT Nomadix. But there's one person who seems to exist in both worlds and she is key to saving the universe. Lily Veyne, in one world humble staff nurse, in the other insane despot intent on total control of the rebel universe. The worlds start to merge and reality fractures and splinters until only the insane will be able to understand the true meaning of numbers.