“I can’t think of another science fiction writer who understands the strengths of the genre so well.”
—The New York Times

Just before the Earth’s near-destruction, a father and daughter lead their community forty million years into the future—and beyond. 

An inexplicable ecological disaster is rapidly making the Earth uninhabitable. Illinois scientist Jack Kenton, along with his family and a thousand or so residents of his hometown, take refuge at a mysterious research facility. There, Jack has been overseeing the development of temporal displacement: a novel technology that offers hope, but at the price of an unpredictable exit from time itself.

When Jack’s community emerges from temporal isolation into a wholly transformed Earth, rebuilding a civilization with few resources, while navigating clashing political and religious beliefs, will require more than ingenuity. Especially when forces beyond their understanding are waging an interstellar war, forging humanity into something unrecognizable.

After Jack’s daughter Laurel explores a massive, enigmatic structure at the shore of a nameless sea, she will learn what nearly drove her people to extinction—and what the future may hold for the survivors after forty million summers.