From a glimpse into early man and his later descendents who establish a branch of the human family on the continent of Asia, the novel moves along into the mid twentieth century, to the Second World War and the 1950s. Book two contains approximately two-thirds of the novel, chronicling the dramatic experiences of its three protagonists: Dimitri Kagan from a small town south of Stalingrad; Kurt Wilhelm Schmidt, born on a farm outside of Hanover; and Elijah Milbrook Cole, a black teenager of latent artistic talent, dealing with life in a Detroit ghetto.