• With a picture of Jack London, a detailed biography of him is added.

• All content is redone in a new style, with the author's name and the title of the novel at the top.

• For a better glance, a small graphic is added at the beginning of each chapter.

The story takes set in 2072, sixty years after the world has been ravaged by the scarlet plague. James Howard Smith is one of the last persons alive in the San Francisco area, and when he sees his time is running out, he tries to instil in his grandsons the value of knowledge and wisdom. At the time of the epidemic, American society had become extremely stratified, with a substantial hereditary underclass of servants and "nurses"; the political system had been replaced by a codified oligarchy; and the political system had been replaced by a formalised oligarchy. Commercial airship lines, as well as private airships owned by the wealthy, exist.