On her 75th birthday in July of 3015, Elve receives a letter from the Glorious New World Republic of Asia and the Americas. The government demands, but nicely, that she begin to plan for her Glorious Death which will be solemnized upon her eightieth birthday. Elve decides that she will not do it. Instead, she will devote her remaining years to disseminating her precious books, books which have miraculously survived a thousand years of cultural upheavals, political stupidity, and environmental devastation. Her book project is stillborn when five-year-old Hom comes to live with her. Caring for the boy, teaching him, and protecting him from government authorities consume all her energies. The Statesfield ruins (Hom's "Roons") across the road from Elve's condo are both an icon of peril and a place of sanctuary in the story.