Private investigator Charlie Meiklejohn is called in by insurance companies to follow the trail of a suspected serial arsonist. The arsonist, Carson Danvers, has been on a fanatical crusade, since the loss of his wife and son, burning down buildings in an effort to stop the manifestations of a malfunctioning alien space probe, which has caused random outbreaks of madness and murder that occur in old, abandoned wooden buildings. Meiklejohn begins following the criminal trail’s but finds himself teaming up with his quarry to face the much deeper problem.

Kate Wilhelm is the author of more than three dozen books and the winner of Nebula Award, Hugo Award, Jupiter Award, Locus Award, and the Prix Apollo. She and her late husband, Damon Knight, helped found the Science Fiction Writers of America and the Clarion Writers Workshop. She lives in Eugene, Oregon.