Barry di Hoa, antimatter engineer assigned to the Moon, was all set to propose marriage to his girlfriend when he was suddenly shanghaied to Paya, a planet light-years away. Worse, the planet was seismically unstable. Even worse, the human colonists were religious fanatics who were awaiting the end of the world. And they not only expected it soon, and were looking forward to it, but they had a plan to bring it about. Barry somehow had to stop them, but his only allies were the caterpillar-like indigenous aliens. And without the drugs he depended on to keep from going into a manic-depressive cycle, being a hero would be even more complicated. But Barry was the only potential hero in sight, manic-depressive or not...