Devastated by her husband's death, Earth-based biologist Yoshiko journeys to the paradise world of Fulgor, to visit her estranged son, Tetsuo, to try and bridge the gulf between them. But Tetsuo is in trouble. His expertise in mu-space tech, and his family's links with the mysterious, feared Pilots, who traverse mu-space's fractal reaches, have ensured his survival so far. Now he's in way over his head, snared in a web of illegal trafficking and police corruption. If he didn't have enough problems with the super-intelligent Fulgidi merchants, there are the Luculenti to contend with. They are Fulgor's elite- humans with minds enhanced by plexcore processors, at home in the stunningly complex virtual Skein, carrying the edited memories and skills of their forbears. And Tetsuo has been dealing with one Luculentus in particular - Rafael Garcia de la Vega - behind whose charm and charisma there lurks a brilliant but ruthless mind - and darkly primitive desires... When his home is attacked, Tetsuo flees to the unterraformed wastes of the Hypozone - where he finds himself on the flipside of Fulgor's noble, decaying society, in a wilderness world of renegades, outcasts and terrorists.