The spaceship returns to Earth 800 years after launch. Much has changed during this time. There are several small, warring states on American territory. After a global environmental disaster, technogenic civilization ceased to exist. Surviving people have struggled for existence for centuries, sciences have been forgotten, cults of worship of Nature and Fertility reign.

The captain of the arriving ship, Peter Stagg, immediately becomes the central figure of the upcoming annual holiday - he receives the titles of the Sun Hero and the Deer King, the latter not symbolically - he undergoes an operation to transplant real horns. Young elk antlers take root and begin to produce hormones, under the influence of which Peter's strength as a male sire increases many times over, but the ability to think normally is lost. After stormy orgies in the capital, the Deer King and his retinue begin a tour of the country. In every locality, dozens, or even hundreds of virgins await him, whom he must bestow with the divine seed. And only in the morning, before meals, while the horns are resting, does he make plans to escape - after all, the tour will end with the solemn ceremony of his castration... Not simply and not immediately, but Peter manages to escape. Having lost both horns, he almost dies, but the surviving team members save him. They decide to leave Earth and return to one of the planets they discovered to establish their civilization there. And to complete the genetic pool, the astronauts take with them babies from the orphanage and several girls with whom fate brought them together on their home planet.