It describes a world set three hundred years into the future after a catastrophic war which has fractured the United States into several nations.

[citation needed] They have evolved in the direction of Ecotopia, reverting to a sustainable economy based on small cities and low-tech local agriculture.

When Stavia is selected for an exploration mission to the south, Chernon leaves the garrison (on Michael's orders), meets her there, and rapes her.

The Holylanders are brutally misogynistic, treating women as slaves to their husbands, and children (both sons and daughters) are subject to severe corporal punishment which they term 'chastisement'.

Chernon also is changed by his experiences, and returns to his garrison promoting the ways of the Holylanders as an alternative to their current societal structure.

The story explores many elements from ecofeminism, which has been a hallmark of much of Tepper's writing,[citation needed] both in her feminist science fiction and in her pseudonymous mysteries.

The biological determinism of Tepper's world also controls sexuality, and the novel constructs homosexuality as a genetic and hormonal disorder which has been eugenically removed from the population.

[1] Tepper thus illustrates a world approaching a feminist utopia through the vision of a powerful leadership who impose rigid behavioral control on their society, and engineer the removal of those traits they consider undesirable (mainly violence) through forced sterilization.

However, the Council's decision to interfere with its citizens' reproduction, without their consent or knowledge, is shown as a serious ethical issue—a "damned" choice as described by one of the leaders.