A nearly perfect world of endless night holds answers for one stranded man: Every reflection, no matter how imperfect, hints at that which casts it.
As astronaut Alex Boten prepares for a test of a cutting-edge quantum physics system that should herald the unlimited exploration of space, a cascade failure begins. In the catastrophe’s culmination, he is propelled 50,000 light years away from Earth—into orbit above planet known as Mirrus, a pre-renaissance world where people live in perpetual night. There, the sailing ship Ammanon Deloré is set for a dangerous voyage, chartered by a man who has brought his people into an era of scientific understanding. This scientist has a secret—a secret that troubles both him and the planet's ruling elite. Hoping the Deloré's journey might resolve the questions this secret poses, the authorities sweep aside objections and approve the charter. During the expedition, startling phenomena suggest the imminent fulfillment of the people's most ancient prophecies. When Alex is discovered by Mirrus' human-like inhabitants, they try to cast him in a role he feels honor bound to refuse—if he can. Through all this, Alex must deal with the ghosts of his own past, and his reactions to a culture disorientingly idyllic, a culture near perfection—but a culture with its own secrets, its own shame, and a history that threatens them all.