Two quarreling peasant families, who were forced to leave their lands after the war, are settled by accident on two neighboring farms.
Pirx, an experienced pilot, is hired to go on a top-secret mission to evaluate some 'nonlinears' (an experimental model of android) for use as crewmembers on future space flights. Pirx and this intriguing crew are sent out to launch two satellites into the rings of Saturn, but he is determined to find out and identify a hostile unhuman coworker among them.
A boy comes of age under an oppressive, cruel socialist government and watches as it slowly but surely distorts his family, his school and even his own thoughts.
