Two men, one of them a policeman, are investigating a death involving a large international genetic engineering corporation. They become bothersome to the corporate owners and are taken out of action - not by being killed, but by being put to sleep for hundreds of years. But this may be a fate worse than death.They awaken to a distant future in which contemporary industrial civilization has been "e;cleansed"e; from the earth and what humanity survives is learning to live a very low-technology lifestyle, being bred eugenically to this life. This cleaning was done on purpose, an international plot by the rich and powerful who in fact rule the world - and who, in this distant future, are dying off.This is a complex and morally tortuous vision, and Turner's characters find it nearly impossible to adapt without killing someone, perhaps even themselves.