The final book in David Wingrove's critically acclaimed science fiction masterpiece is set among the red-roofed houses of "China on the Rhine, " where former freedom-fighter Emily Ascher now serves as mother to the orphan boys of a war-devastated land. But unto the people of Chung Kuo, two children will be born, a baby girl smothered and thrown away, but not yet dead, and a baby boy delivered into a hostile land, yet determined to fight for his life. They are part of a new generation who will see more death than any who have gone before.Although peace seems to reign, the puppet master of an army of giant androids plans one final absolute destruction. And although the great T'ang, the dictators of Earth, are gone, mega corporation GenSyn remains+as does its pleasure drug which will turn Chung Kuo into a funeral pyre. Now the only escape lies in sending survivors toward new stars, or joining Emily Ascher in a battle for liberty and a new Earth.