Ted Benteley works for the Solar Lottery. To his horror, he finds himself a pawn in a power struggle which will change his life and the course of history. However, he must take up the challenge issued by a diabolical power broker in a duel of psychic trickery. They become intrigued by two struggling married teenagers, Art, and his pregnant wife, Racheal. Patricia in an attempt to re-live her youth, seduces Art.
Repercussions follow and in the end, the couples are brought closer together.
Jim remarries Patricia, and Art and Rachel find new hope when their child is born. In the interim their life intertwines that of the paranoid character, Grimmelman, and his remote controlled Horsch. And, of course, there is the optometrist's giant plastic bubble. While attending UC at Berkeley, he dropped out rather than take ROTC training. There he stayed to write some 36 novels and 5 short story collections.