Patera Silk, a dedicated young augur of the decaying city of Viron, has made a pact with the wealthy, sinister Blood. In so doing, he finds that he has embarked upon a quest that begins to reveal to him the hidden secrets and true nature of his world, a huge starship illuminated and warmed by the artificial Long Sun. Silk's searching takes him to Lake Limna and a shrine that conceals an entrance to the subsurface passages of the ship, to rooms that contain strange machines and and stranger beings, to rooms with windows...