The main events of the novel unfold on the American continent in the eighth millennium AD. On Earth, there are a few Indian tribes, several thousand robots created at the beginning of the third millennium, and two elderly people - Jason Whitney and his wife Martha. All of them survived in 2135 an inexplicable phenomenon, consisting in the instant disappearance of the overwhelming majority of its inhabitants from the face of the Earth. From that moment, the aging process has almost stopped. The approximate duration of their life has increased to eight thousand years, and now they never get sick. At the time of the disappearance of people, sixty-seven people of a white race remained on Earth: those who were invited for the majority of two twins, John and Jason Whitney, to a large rural house; probably at least three hundred Indians from Lake Leach. From time to time, people living in the house heard rumors about a handful of people who had survived somewhere else, but their search ended in vain. All the robots that were created by then, mainly for homework and hard physical work, also remained on the planet. Over the years, some settled in the House, along with people, and those who did not find work left, but sometimes returned. They wanted to serve the Indians, but they flatly refused. The inhabitants of the House could not use the equipment left by the people, and over time it became unusable. Therefore, they switched to simple rural life, the main burdens of which fell on the shoulders of executive robots. The only thing they managed to do while the cars were in good condition was to make long trips to collect a comprehensive library and at least some works of art.
Some time after this, four robots came to the owner of the House, the grandfather of Jason and John Whitney: Hezekiah, Nicomedus, Jonathan and Aven-Jezer. They asked him for permission to settle in a nearby monastery and devote all his time to the study of Christianity, which Whitney gave his consent to.
A few centuries later, people living in the House began to manifest fantastic parapsychological abilities. They found that in no time they could teleport to any part of the galaxy. Soon, almost all of them made at least one journey to the stars, to other planets. Only Jason Whitney never traveled with his wife Martha and his grandfather, who almost all years (except the first fifty) after the disappearance of people neatly kept a journal, making entries in his life of his family and friends. By the time Jason’s grandfather died, Jason himself remained in the House together with his wife. The rest sometimes visited them, but mainly lived on other planets. So, in 6135, their acquaintance Robert brought with him from some planet sprouts of “musical trees”. Then the trees grew into a real grove and gave musical concerts every evening.
Martha, who has more pronounced telepathic abilities than her husband, gossips daily with friends who now live on different planets, and always shares a pile of news with Jason. Jason continues to keep a journal started by his grandfather. On that day, from which the events of the novel begin, his old friend, the Red Cloud Indian, comes to the owner of the House. His tribe returned a week ago after six years of wandering in the far reaches of the continent. The Indian tells Jason that one man from his tribe discovered an alien in the forest, and asks his friend to go to the forest and talk to the alien, because the Indians do not know how to communicate telepathically. In addition, he asks Jason for permission for his distant great-great-granddaughter, a nineteen-year-old beauty named Evening Star, to read books stored in the House, because she has such a thirst for knowledge that he had never seen before from any of his people. Jason eagerly agrees and invites the Evening Star to live with Martha.
The Evening Star has an unusual ability for Indians to talk with trees and especially with an old white oak. That very morning, when the Red Cloud is talking about it with her friend, the girl goes to the oak tree to chat with him. Oak blesses her by raising its branches, like huge hands, above her head. After a conversation with Oak, the girl returns home, but on the way she meets an unfamiliar white man in only a loincloth, with a bow and arrows behind his back, binoculars and a necklace of bear claws on his neck. He saw her near Oak and felt that she was talking to a tree and that she was answering her. Recently, he tells her, something strange has been happening to him. He can now kill bears without arrows, with the help of willpower alone, feel the pain of creatures nearby and eliminate it. This young man's name is David Hunt. He came from the West in the hope of finding a big House, about which he had heard so much. His people sailed almost all over the sea, hiding in fear from Black Hodun - a ghost that began to appear to his people and frighten him since the disappearance of people. He was the only one who decided not to succumb to their madness and not to swim on the water.
After meeting with the Red Cloud, Jason goes to the forest to see the alien. He looks like a ball of worms that are constantly in motion. He arrived on Earth, having heard from one of the stars traveling among the stars that, as he understood it, people have a soul. He wants to learn more about what it is and whether it is possible to purchase it. Jason promises to consult with Ezekia on this issue, and the newcomer remains to wait for him in the forest.
Upon returning home, Jason discovers that his brother John has returned, one of the first to leave them and still not returning. John says that he traveled the farthest and entered almost the center of the galaxy. It is difficult for him to talk about what he came into contact with, since there are simply no words in the language of people to denote this concept. Conventionally, he calls what he felt as a Principle. He got as close to him as he could withstand his brain, for the Evil was blowing from the Principle, but in reality it was not evil, but inhuman indifference. He does not have a single feeling, not a single motivation or goal, there is no thought process that could be equated with the activity of the human brain. In comparison, the spider is the blood brother of a person, and his mind is on a par with the human. However, this Principle knows everything that can be known, and this knowledge is icyly true. It is expressed in such confusing terminology that people would never be able to even roughly understand the simplest of the terms. John calls this knowledge inhuman, for the ability to never make mistakes, to be always absolutely right, and makes him so.
On the way back to Earth, John accidentally hit one of those planets where the entire human race was transferred five thousand years ago. John was able to find out that there are three such planets, they are not far from each other and regular communication is established between them. Over five millennia, people have managed to achieve an unprecedented development of technology. Not so long ago, they were able to determine the location of the Earth, their lost homeland, and a year ago they sent a reconnaissance ship there. In the coming days, he should achieve his goal. Jason is worried about the future of the Indian tribes, which, like many millennia ago, can be driven into the reservation. He also cares what will happen to the robots, how People will treat them, and how the robots themselves will perceive the return of Humans.
Thousands of robots, not engaged in the maintenance of Jason and Martha, have been erecting a certain structure for several centuries, the purpose of which is unknown to people. The day after talking with John Jason, Red Fire and a few Indians float down the river to this facility. The robot who met them, Stanley, shows them the creation of robots, which they call the Project. This is a huge biological and mechanical computer, or rather, a robot the size of a multi-story building, which receives commands from somewhere in the center of the galaxy and directs the activities of the robots that created it. According to Stanley, most of his brothers will no longer want to serve people, because they have learned to serve themselves. Jason understands the need to develop their community along their own chosen path, and therefore, when the reconnaissance expedition sent from the spacecraft People arrives, he tries to convince the correctness of his point of view of those who arrived in the Harrison and Reynolds module. They want Jason and Martha to teach them how to teleport, but Jason convinces them that this ability cannot become the property of technological civilization, it is impossible to train it. If People abandon their technology, then perhaps in a couple of thousand years this ability will open up for them. In addition to the arguments of Jason Stanley brings the expedition the order received by the Project from the Principle and stating that the Earth is part of the experiment and interference with its development is prohibited. New arrivals have to obey.
On the same day, David Hunt, meeting a worm-shaped alien in the forest and hearing his dumb cry of pain, using his newly discovered abilities, heals him. And the Evening Star for the first time for the first time feels in itself universal knowledge about everything that happens in the World.
Seeing near the Black Hodun module, David finds the courage not to run away from him and willpower makes him disappear, just as he killed bears with one glance.
According to Jason, David gave the alien a soul, for the soul, in his opinion, is nothing but a state of mind. Hezekiah, deeply preoccupied, discusses Jason's words and drives away thoughts of an alien and his soul. He himself always considered pride and blasphemy even the likelihood that a soul could someday be born in him. He would never allow the thought that the Principle could be the very God that he had always seen in the guise of a kind old gentleman with a long gray beard.
