What do Stephen Court and Marion Barton of our time have in common with the treacherous barbarian conqueror, Thordred, or the vengeful Carthaginian warrior, Scipio, or Li Yang, the plump pleasure-loving Mongol Prince? They are all pawns in a million year plot to breed super-intelligence into the human race. One million years ago, Ardath, a male humanoid from a race possessing super-mentality survived a crash landing on Earth that killed all the other crewmembers, male and female. Seeing that this world supports primitive life, Ardath, determines to place himself in suspended animation and wait for evolution to produce intelligent humanoids on Earth. Then he will awaken and through a selective breeding program, to create a new race with super-mentality in the image of his own. All Ardath needs for his purpose is to wait for a mutant genus to be born. Then Ardath plans to take this man or woman and go on into time, until he finds a mental giant of the opposite sex. From their union will arise a race of mental giants who will be the off-spring and foster-children of his own race. It is a mission Adrath is sworn to complete even if it takes a million years! What the alien Ardath leaves out of his calculations is that in human beings, along with super-intelligence come super-greed, treachery, and lust.  Kuttner's work "fuses vigorous plotting with romanticism. Colorful!" The Science Fiction Encyclopedia.