He devises a way of predicting earthquakes months or years in advance, and eventually banishing them forever by stopping all tectonic activity.

Late in the 20th century an earthquake in California has left seven-year-old Lewis Crane a crippled, homeless orphan.

A cartel of cynical businessmen and politicians decides to use the prediction to further their interests in the upcoming presidential election.

Naysayers raise the objections that the detonation of nuclear bombs is dangerous and that stopping all Earth's tectonic activity will bring unforeseen consequences.

Crane then reveals that decades in the future a quake with a magnitude of 10 on the Richter scale will split much of California from the North American continent, making it an island in the Pacific with massive losses of life and property.

The book ends in the mid-twenty-first century with Lewis pouring his consciousness into a neural network before committing suicide by remaining in the quake zone when it finally hits.