Nearly 100,000 years after first contact with the machines that dominate the universe, only a few hundred humans survive. Trapped on Snowglade, a barren world near the center of the galaxy, Killeen and his child, Toby, of the Bishop Tribe are primitive scavengers, homeless and hunted by the ruling "mechs". Then suddenly, a strange cosmic entity - neither organic nor cybernetic or living matter - reaches out from a black hole to speak with Killeen. But can the fallen descendent of starfarers understand this being in time--and seize his only chance to save his family and mankind from final annihilation?