In the title story, a private school student finds himself on a precipice at the end of the world. He must choose between the cynical, reactionary culture in which he was raised and a dangerous, hopeful alternative provided by Chinese scientists. In "My Father's Buick," two popular teenagers bully a socially-awkward Christian into a dramatic demonstration of his faith. "The Actaeon Project" follows a group of NASA executives trying to shake a curse they incurred by destroying the moon. The final story, "Harrison Kuvera Investigates!" tracks a family of transcendental meditators as they try to contact their matriarch, recently reincarnated among the Andaman ocean's Sentinelese. David Gilman Frederick finds the inspiration for his writing among the spiritualists, believers, and hardened skeptics with whom he grew up in Portland, Oregon. His stories explore the common humanity that underlies our various faiths and convictions, for the worse and for the better.