In this world, the Macedonian Empire proved so strong and durable that it redirected the barbarian migrations of the Goths, Vandals, and others eastward towards China and the rest of the Far East.

Deciding to take advantage of the untapped resources that await in this different California, Rolfe gathers members of his infantry company to help him explore and develop this new world.

In 2009, two California fish and game officers, Tom Christiansen and Roy Tully, are trying to solve the mystery of how large numbers of pelts from endangered species are showing up.

They are successful, but when they look through the new gate, they do not see FirstSide (New Virginia slang for Rolfe's home Earth) Oakland, but instead a snarling saber-toothed cat and a dead giant sloth.

While trying to fix his radio in his basement, Rolfe accidentally created a gate to an alternate California in which Europeans had yet to discover the Americas.

Immigration to "New Virginia", as they called it, began with close family members and friends of the men involved, but it later included settlers drawn from various ethnic groups looking for places to hide: fugitive Nazis, pieds-noirs, Afrikaners, Rhodesians, and former Russian communists.

By the present day in the novel, the Commonwealth of New Virginia had expanded across the new California, with outposts as far as Alaska and Colorado and colonies in Hawaii and Australia.

One example was Rolfe's love of hunting, which encouraged him to partner with the San Diego Zoo to import large African animals, which he then moved through the Gate and released into the wilds of his new North America.

Power is held by the Thirty Families (which actually number 32) who make all of the decisions regarding the Commonwealth, though there is some limited democracy in the form of the House of Burgesses.

The demographics of the Commonwealth are primarily white with religions ranging from Protestant, Catholic, and Orthodox denominations of Christianity to Judaism.