In the far future, Earth's rotation has been halted by powerful aliens searching for the end of the universe. Happening upon Earth, the aliens took from it what they needed and moved on. The human race is now divided; some living on the cold night side, some the sweltering day side, yet others in the thin twilight between the two regions.
 
Living a life of pleasure and decadence in the twilight region, Valta Becker impregnates his daughter who dies shortly after giving birth to Clovis, last of the twilight children.
 
Neglected by his father, Clovis leaves home for the more technologically and philosophically sophisticated daylight region, where lifespans stretch to hundreds of years and the marvels of future science still flourish. He makes a name for himself in politics, rising to almost god-like stature. When catastrophe strikes, rendering the daylight people sterile due to an after-effect of the aliens' strange energies used in halting the planet's rotation, Clovis Becker must find an answer or the human race will perish.
 
Thus begins a taut adventure filled with warring political ideologies, End of the World parties, flower forests and floating carriages, shadowy figures attempting to shape mankind's destiny for their own ends, colorful descriptions worthy of Jack Vance and Mervyn Peake—and a love story for the ages as Clovis and Fastina Cahmin—the last born of the daylight people—seek immortality… but at what cost?
 
Michael Moorcock is one of the most widely read SF authors in the world, and here his fertile imagination is on full display.