The narrative opens in a peaceful rural village where the arrival of outsiders revives an old local curse and unsettles the community. It then moves into subterranean discovery, revealing strange origins, ancient tombs, and a recovered papyrus that triggers peril and escape. After a devastating war the survivors return, take to the air, and journey beyond the solar system to Jupiter and other worlds, encountering alien societies, rituals, and prolonged enmities. The tale concludes with moral reckonings and transformative visions as characters face sacrifice and judgment while imagining a reorganized, ostensibly perfected social order.