Captain RP Laxman and Oliver Cape sail to the Olympus Islands on the giant wind ferry Charon. Their mission is to administer the World Authority's peace at the end of the long anarchist war... Expecting to make a useful contribution in an outpost of empire, they instead become enmeshed in local intrigue and incompetence. The Resident Commissioner is a pompous alcoholic, with a Treasurer scheming to replace him. The Secretary, James Darling, is a buffoon with a dangerous, diseased mind. The Japanese trader, Omi, is also prominent in the affairs of the Islands, as are the Resident Commissioner's wife, Jocasta, and the Treasurer's daughter, Hope... The Olympus Islands are being slowly drowned by the ocean. The native People of the Coral, bemused by the Authority's representatives, realise they have to make use of their innate occult vision and take a more active role in their own affairs... Even though they know that, ultimately, the inhabitants of all worlds live at the direction of the Fates and the Furies.