Sorak is elected as the Chair of the city Senate, having remained after returning with Nasa and her son from their home in the hidden valley. A society based on the equality between the genders is slowly being established. Free of the harsh and rigid control of the old regime, many of the imperfections of a free society emerge. But not everybody is happy and below the surface, a body of women resent what Sorak is trying to do. Evidence of people living in the forest on the other side of the plain surrounding the city is detected. Belief that the original founders of the city had landed in their spacecraft in this forest area leads Nasa, Sorak's former slave and now partner, to seek out these forest people. Evidence confirms that the ancient stories about the beginnings of the are true. Contact is made with the forest people, but all is not what it seems...