A generation has passed since the change that rendered technology inoperable around the world, and western Oregon has finally achieved a degree of peace. Except a new threat has risen in Paradise Valley, Wyoming. A man known as the Prophet presides over the church universal and triumphant, teaching his followers to continue God's work by destroying the remnants of technological civilization they encounter, and those who dare use them.

Rudi Mackenzie has journeyed far across the land that was once the United States of America, hoping to find the source of the world-altering event that has come to be known as The Change. On the island of Nantucket he finds a beautifully made sword waiting for him--and once he takes it up, nothing will ever be the same.