David Innes returns to the inner world with a prefabricated ship, gunpowder and a printing press, meaning to found an empire — and finds Dian gone and the reptile Mahars rebuilding theirs. Burroughs takes the sequel where the first book could not go: into the politics of a place with no night, where distance is unmeasurable and every journey is a gamble on direction. The empire gets built; the price is paid by everyone who follows him down.