Len Mattern is a space merchant, seasoned from decades of meandering from star to star in a tramp freighter. His obsession is the high-class prostitute, Lyddy, and Len has spent his entire adult life amassing sufficient wealth to wed her, which he does at the story's beginning. The rest of the tale is told mostly in flashback.
On the orders of Argo, the White Goddess, an itinerant poet and his three companions journey to the island of Aptor. Their mission: to seize a jewel from the dark god Hama and bring it back home. With this precious stone Argo may defeat the malign forces gathered against her and the land of Leptor. But, as the group presses deep into the enigmatic heart of Aptor, easy distinctions between good and evil blur, and somehow the task seems less straightforward.
Abby Wright is a reporter for the local news station KRT whose husband Ellis disappeared a week ago. She's good friends with an engineer from the station named Cole and has dinner with him. Later they go out on a walk on a woods trail in a park where strange alterations in reality start taking place.
During an expedition to Mars astronauts Brenda Ivanova and Ralph Brown become trapped in a fierce dust storm. Seeking shelter, they discover a structure buried in the sand that leads to a dark corridor with sealed doors and unknown symbols. They soon realize that someone—or something—is waiting for them. As they try to unravel the mystery, they wonder if what they experienced was really just an illusion. What secrets does the mysterious corridor on Mars hold what is it trying to warn them about?
Hale Oakham heads into the mysterious jungle to find the mysterious Sir Basil Addington and his laboratory where he has supposedly discovered amazing secrets about life, including ones which enable him to produce monsters and to change the physical characteristics of humans.