The shuttle Liam and Zo'or are in crashes over wilderness, but survive in safety bubbles. The people they meet live off the earth and know nothing of the Taelons. However, Zo'or is injured and missing a Synod meeting on the mother ship.

Bombings begin at embassies and Liam believes they may reignite the SI (Sino-Indian) War, which ended with an armistice several years before. An old intelligence agency friend of Renee's has interesting holographic technology.