For 60,000 years the five races of the Galactic Milieu have watched and waited for the time when human mental development on Earth is ready for the Intervention . . .

As the twentieth century draws to its end, phenomenal mental powers are displayed by 'operants' all across our planet . . . They can 'farspeak' one another telepathically. They can build mental shields and they are capable of coercion by power of mind.

One of these is Rogatien Remillard, a dealer in secondhand books, whose memoirs - written a century on - form the core of this chronicle. They tell of a world where the mind has become a weapon; and of two brothers, each possessed of extraordinary powers - one a peace-bringer, the other an advocate of evil . . .