Ten years after "A Sky Full of Fire" and two years after "A Sky Full of Thunder", an unexpected discovery about the Gate hints at a danger unlike any humanity has faced before. Politicians, soldiers, and scientists scramble in the ultimate confrontation of magic, technology, gods, and wills.

Seven years after "A Sky Full of Fire" the integration of Earth technology and magic puts the Special Region on the verge of a new civil war. Meanwhile, a girl from across the sea goes on a quest to identify the new lights in the sky… and the people who put them there.

Dr. Carol Dawson, a NASA Engineering and Public Relations consultant, is offered the chance to support an American-Japanese joint space program on the far side of the Gate. During her mission, Dawson must contend with superstitious natives, secretive officers, and a risky international plot with the fate of two worlds hanging in the balance.