Lilith's baby, Akin, looks human. But he is not. The alien Oankali, driven by irresistible need, has genetically merged with us. But there are rebels who resist the Oankali tide. Childless humans desperate to regain their world, they seek to "cleanse" the "alien taint" by kidnapping hybrid children like Akin. The raiders are blind to the truth: Earth's new children love all their parents. Babies destined to touch the universe, they are growing starships from the Earth that will eventually take the planet with them, leaving nothing behind.

Only an infant can make his despairing captors see that humankind's future is already lost. And won.