To unravel a puzzle that imperils civilization, the Galaxy's only self-aware computer and its enigmatic human handler must be enticed to abandon their prison planet. Only Computer (yes, that's its name) can solve the puzzle: Why did all humans in the Galaxy, in one searing moment, get back all their missing socks?

Speaking of prisons, on the hell-world Bohrkk a mysterious energy spike destroys a sprawling punitorium. The only survivors: Mormon trideevangelist Alrue Latier, his plural wives, and a reluctant documentarian. To survive, they must con the native tribespeople they encounter on a breathtaking scale. (Latier doesn't mind.)

The missing-socks mystery opens the path toward unimaginably larger mysteries, touching even the domain of lint theory. As this tour de farce concludes, will the reclusive Computer and Alrue Latier, now a self-made dictator, recognize that they need each other ... before a mushrooming cult inspired by twentieth-century priest-philosopher Teilhard de Chardin overwhelms their gimcrack scheme to save the Galaxy?