Century female author and her problems, but seems to be more the telling of Russ's view of the plight of females and female authors in any age. All the stories are well-written and worth collecting. That the only way to get these stories is from a British publisher is a pity. One Earth has opted for simple totalitarianism.
People speak Russian, work at whatever jobs they are set, and are killed if they refuse.
Humanity has been genetically 'improved', and people too old for manual labor spend their days linked directly to computer systems. The second Earth is also a world in which people are treated like machines. The third Earth is superficially closer to ours. It is a world in which America never entered WWII to fight against Facism. As a result, it has become a bureaucratic welfare state.