Dumarest had been to many worlds in his long quest for Earth, but none were to entrap him as dangerously as Zakym. A mere stop on his route, Dumarest had thought, but he had not known then of the things that made Zakym of the double-sun unique.

One was the daily recurrence of the dead - the time of delusia when spectres walked and criticized the works of the living. The other was the Pact - the unwritten treaty with an unseen species that divided the world forever. In daytime it belonged to humanity; after dark it became a hostile and alien planet.

Dumarest thought Zakym would be a mere stopover on his quest, but the living, the dead, and the invisible decided otherwise...