The novel is set tens of thousands of years in the future, 100 centuries after the start of a new era, in a voluntary anarchistic society spanning the Solar System called the Golden Oecumene.

There is only one remaining court, the Curia, and they rarely hear cases since everything can be solved externally by superior Sophotech intelligence and simulation.

The Peers are the most wealthy and powerful humans ever to have lived, and they include Phaethon's "father" Helion, who created the Solar Array, a means of mixing the Sun's mass in order to extend the main-sequence hydrogen-burning lifetime of our star.

The peaceful Utopian society does not believe in Phaethon's hostile experiences and discoveries, because of the enemy's superior subterfuge and technology.

A copy of his wife, Daphne tracks him down and between her and the only soldier left in the solar system, we discover the truth about how Phaethon was tricked into exile.

Publishers Weekly in their review said "Wright's ornate and conceptually dense prose will not be to everyone's taste but, for those willing to be challenged, this is a rare and mind-blowing treat.