After a near-miss of a giant comet, the American people fall under the control of a radical right-wing fundamentalist Christian government, ruled by the Grand Patriarchs, that slowly stips away their freedoms and establishes a rule of law that even the dictatorships of the 20th Century couldn't have dreamed up.

Force into virtual seclusion, Edward Silverberg, a former Englis Lit professor, finds himself on a path that will lead to either his destruction, or the destruction of the Grand Patriarchs...or maybe both.