They add the information they gather to their Pope, a robotic supercomputer, in order to make an infallible authority of all knowledge and religion.

On a desolate planet named the End of Nothing at the edge of the galaxy, a group of robots and their human assistants form the religious institution called Vatican 17.

This group is engaged in a secret project to create the ultimate infallible Pope, a supercomputer robot containing all knowledge that can be gathered from this universe and other dimensions.

Based on the Pope's interpretation of all knowledge both material and spiritual the robots hope to establish a truly universal religion.

When he arrives on the planet he quickly befriends Jill Roberts, a reporter who wants to write a formal history of the Colony.

Tennyson, Jill and Whisperer discover the location of Mary’s heaven from the equation people, aliens from another dimension.

Mary's heaven turns out to be a type of center for galactic studies that collects physical samples of life forms from all over the galaxy.