The year was 2035 when, for the first time in the history of space exploration, humankind encountered a race of intelligent beings on another world. A peaceful and defenseless race, the Utod became helpless victims of Man's rapacious greed and random violence. In an attempt to learn their language, Aylmer Ainson marooned himself on their home world, Dapdrof. Now, 40 years later, a human ship has come to "rescue" him, to carry him home to a world he has almost forgotten, and one that has undergone cataclysmic changes...