Forty years after the Coming Forth, cities of the People have spread across the continent; from Yissou, the walled fortress of brooding King Sala Yissou, the walled fortress of brooding King Salaman, to vibrant Dawinno, where Chieftain Taniane presides over a coalition of tribes and the old Chronicler Hresh ponders Great World artifacts. With the cities come the ills of ambition, bureaucracy, and corruption. then one day the People face a greater threat: an ultimatum from the hijk-queen...
since emerging, the insectoid hijk hordes have believed that they, not the People, should inherit the Earth - and they might be right. Their telepathic immortal Queen rules a hive-mind millions of years old, the only survivor of the Great World's godlike races. the hjik are ancient where the People are young; earned where the People are ignorant; organized where the People are chaotic; many where the People are few.
A human enjoy from the Queen makes the offer: peace in exchange for limits to tribal expansion and acceptance of the hijk vision of security, love, and control. It is a vision of life that is intricate, beautiful, absolute. And inhuman.
The proposal throws Dawinno into turmoil, as does the growing passion between the envoy and Nialli Apuilana, daughter of the city's chieftain.
Savage pride, territorial lust, and xenophobic horror dominate the city, even as the new religion worshiping the hijk spread like fire and in Yissou a glorious plan to unite all the People against the "bugs": gets under way.
If the hijk-queen is refused, the New Springtime will run with blood. The fledgling tribes will be exterminated, or they will destroy a race infinitely old and wise. But if the hijk are accepted, the People will have survived the Winter, only to lose their newfound humanity forever. And the only person who can stop the genocidal madness from sweeping hte Earth is Nialii, Taniane and Hresh's tenacious daughter, whose people, including her parents, consider her insane...