Originally intended to be one book, the story was split into Exiles and Quest for the Well of Souls forming a duology.

Scientist Gilgram Zinder has finally decoded the ancient Markovian physics that controls our universe.

Zinder and Yulin construct "Obie", a sentient supercomputer, building it in Markovian fashion directly into Trelig's resort planetoid, New Pompeii.

Mavra Chang, freighter pilot and secret agent, is hired to rescue Zinder and halt Trelig's plans of universal conquest.

Mavra and Zinder are aboard a spacecraft when this occurs, and find themselves flying over a "non-tech" hex.