But, for the people of Onofre Valley, on the coast of California, just surviving is enough of a challenge. Living simply on what the sea and land can provide, they strive to preserve what knowledge and skills they can in a society without mass communications. Then one day Henry meets two men who say they represent the new American resistance. He lives his life through dreams of the past. Father and son, separate for so long, are finally on a collision course.
People play softball and pedal their flyers above ecologically-sound thermocrete rooftops.
The democratically-elected council debate environmental issues and make rational decisions for the public good. There lives Kevin Claiborne. To him, it must be the perfect society. But when he hears of plans to develop Rattlesnake Hill, the last piece of wilderness in the area, he senses the bubbling of corruption below the unblemished surface. Their mission is to terraform the planet, turning it from a wasteland into an Eden populated by people, plants, and animals.