The culmination of the adventures of Connor Findlay Patrick O'Reilly. Gabriel Quintin has discovered Maree Bryden and the Invalids are relatively safe at Focheden but Connor's destiny is not fulfilled. As Mansanto continues his plan to escape the desecrated planet, there is a burning deep inside of Connor. A dangerous smouldering need that he knows will burst forth in a fire as fatal as the one he set at the bio labs. There is something he has to do, something that is abhorrent and evil and yet necessary. And something that he cannot do alone. How will he persuade his people to help him to accomplish it when he knows it will send him straight to hell and he is asking those he loves to go with him? Doomsday is at hand and when the dust finally settles what will have been won and who will have been lost?