All his life Manvar has had a dream. One day, he will escape the harshly primitive, blizzard-torn lands of the north. He will follow the paths of the Ancients and see for himself the fabled lands of the south: lands without ice and snow and perpetual night; lands of warmth and light, where life is easy and comfortable within walled cities of incredible beauty. Manvar follows his dream, but finds it hollow. Life in the wondrous city of Delphos is not the paradise it seemed.
Art critics are notoriously inhuman - and on Donov many of them were physically inhuman as well. Donov was a planet devoted to the arts. People came from all over the galaxy to attend its galleries and meets its artists. And many of its best artists were not human either. But when a rising tide of anti-alien pogroms and riots begin zeroing in on Donov from outer sace, it became clear that there was a plot afoot that had nothing to do with art criticism. It had to do with planetary genocide. And that's the basus of Lloyd Biggle's most ingenious and suspenseful space novel since THE WORLD MENDERS.