Years after a meteor destroys much of Veyrdel, Rohan is teaching in a makeshift classroom when he and his students are attacked. The Niveti, the ruling class, are carnivores, and when food grew scarce, they turned on Rohan's kind. The woman who attacks them is Princess Alataea, now mentally and physically scarred and reduced to killing her subjects for food.
After taking her life, Rohan leaves his few remaining students, determined to fix things. The time machine his father built is untested, but Rohan is past caring.
It sends him back much further than he intended.
