The Quiet War is over.A century of enlightenment, rational utopianism and exploration of new ways of being human has fallen dark.But victory is fragile, and riven by vicious internal politics. While seeking out and trying to anatomise the strange gardens abandoned in place by Avernus, the Outers' greatest genius, the gene wizard Sri Hong-Owen is embroiled in the plots and counterplots of the family that employs her. The diplomat Loc Ifrahim soon discovers that profiting from victory isn't as easy as he thought. And in Greater Brazil, the Outers' democratic traditions have infected a population eager to escape the tyranny of the great families who rule them.

After such a conflict only one thing is clear. No one can escape the consequences of war - especially the victors.