The distant future. Humanity perished in a mysterious catastrophe, leaving behind only its heirs and servants, an extensive network of artificial intelligences, noems. Having lost the main purpose of their existence, they are trying to find a new one by building their own society. Immortal, they live by laws not invented by them, but time, infinity and complexity can give rise to madness even in a system that is guided solely by logic and rationality, and therefore the civilization of the noema begins to split, giving rise to outcasts and heretics. Plautina is one of these heretics; for many centuries she has been wandering between the stars, never finding a place for herself in a world without people. When she detects a strange, alien signal, Plautina sets off on a journey beyond explored space, hoping to find the reasons for the disappearance of humanity. And her ally, proconsul Otho, is trying to rebuild the noema society itself, since it is threatened by another mind, the hostility of which the noemas have nothing to oppose, because by the will of their creators they cannot harm any biological organism.