The story is described as a "duel of the cosmic magicians." It involves two witch doctors who conjure up ghosts and demons against each other and might appear to be fantasy. But Norton bases the wizards' magic on the use of mildly hallucinogenic drugs, psychological manipulation and latent telepathy, which place the story within the realm of science fiction.
Neal ("Storm") Cloud, nucleonic genius, set out in his spaceship *Vortex Blaster* to track and destroy the vortices. What he finds extends far beyond any threat of nature.
After a strange interstellar journey, Maskull, a man from Earth, awakens alone in a desert on the planet Tormance, seared by the suns of the binary star Arcturus. As he journeys northward, guided by a drumbeat, he encounters a world and its inhabitants like no other, where gender is a victory won at dear cost; where landscape and emotion are drawn into an accursed dance; where heroes are killed, reborn, and renamed; and where the lure of Shaping, who may be God, torment Maskull in his pilgrimage
Suspecting that the moon is just like the earth, and that its inhabitants have visited us, the adventurer devises several means of paying a return visit. His first attempt is based on the fact that dew is attracted to the morning sun. "I attached to myself a few bottles of dew, and the heat of the sun, which attracted it, drew me so high that I finally emerged above the highest clouds." This has him headed for the sun, not the moon! He realizes his error and release enough dew to return to earth
