For this story we move ten thousand years into the future, to an Earth ruined by Nuclear War and subsequently reclaimed by Mother Earth Inc. who have converted mankind's homeworld into an enormous Cemetery. Onto this world arrives Fletcher Carson, an artist who wants to create a composition based on what is left of the old Earth outside the Cemetery. With him are a robot friend,his robotic 'compositor' and a woman he meets soon after arriving. They soon start to discover that there is something sinister happening in the Cemetery.

This story can seem a little disjointed at times, as so much happens from so many directions in such a short book. A lesser writer than Simak cramming this much story into 191 pages would have produced something on the verge of unreadable. Fortunately Simak's talents were up to the task, and whilst this book does not reach the heady heights of 'City' it is still a well written, entertaining SF novel - well worth tracking down a copy.