Raised in a culture where all emotion is ruthlessly repressed, Merin finds she’s changing as she lives with the settlers led by Tarik and his wife, Narisa. Herne, from a brutal planet where murder is expected of everyone, fled his home to become a doctor, but he’s a gruff, unfriendly man.

While excavating the ruins of the old city of Tathan, Herne is called to spend a night with the mysterious Ananka, who looks oddly like Merin. When he reports the incident to his commander the next morning, Tarik thinks it was just an erotic dream and notes that they are living in the infamous Empty Sector of the galaxy, where strange events are routine.

Days later, as Herne and Merin try to return to headquarters from the orbiting space ship Kalina, they are struck by lightning and sent to a thriving Tathan 600 years in the past. There they meet and make friends with Dulan, for whom Tarik named the planet, and also with several other telepaths of various Races. Ananka makes another appearance. And, most improbably, Herne and Merin become passionate lovers. But the food they eat doesn’t nourish them and they know the Cetans will soon attack and destroy the city. How to save their new friends? How to return to their own time?

Ananka agrees to help, but warns the lovers they will forget everything that happened while they were in old Tathan. Can their fragile new love endure such a trauma?