The business of "rebuilding the world, and building new ones" has made exploration and commercial development of space "the moral equivalent of war" for a human race made "one huge, gossiping family" through low cost telecommunication in the world of 2061. After news media satellites attain the high-resolution snooping capacity previously known only to government intelligence agencies, global nuclear war has been negotiated past likelihood, although regional and factional competitions persist.

The reason for telemetric research of the forbidden planetoid Europa—and the hijacking of the space ship Galaxy to Europa—is ultimately commercial. Former South African diamond interests seem dimly involved in the economic consequences of determining whether or not Europa's Mt. Zeus is composed of diamond.

Once again, alien cultures affect humans in the universe of 2061. The human race is a danger to more primitive life forms developing on Europa. Still, the humans...