The story begins with an astounding discovery, a golden sphere buried deep in the Antarctic ice. Encapsulted in the sphere are the naked bodies of a man and a beautiful young woman, survivors of a civilization that had perished 900,000 years ago.

The world is staggered by the discovery and the United Nations, after a stormy debate, agrees to send an international team of scientists to the Antarctic. Eventually, Elea, the young woman, is awakened from her frozen sleep. The scientists learn that she once lived in an advanced, idyllic civilization that was destroyed in a prehistoric atomic holocaust that only students and scientists desperately tried to prevent.

This exciting, always ingenious novel poses the crucial question: can man learn to survive himself?