In the late twenty-second century, Father Gendrick Hellerton begins his new role as priest of the Toojay settlement - an earthlike planet soon to be the next of many New Earths to come with the discovery of the Holes. Circling Toojay, a swarm of Locusts follows the sunset with an insatiable appetite for anything unwary enough to be outside after dark. Gendrick's predecessor, Mother Doneele, is going home, taking with her a dark secret and darker mind...