In a future of near-instantaneous global travel, of abundant provision, a future in which no one living can recall an actual war... a long era of stability threatens to come to an abrupt end. It is 2454. Humanity has engineered a hard-won golden age, forged in the aftermath of a bitter conflict that wiped both religion and nation state from the planet. Now seven factions or 'hives' co-govern the world by technological abundance, oracular statistical analysis, censorship and just a little blood. For centuries, the price of peace has been a few secret murders, mathematically planned. Convict Mycroft Canner knows more about this conspiracy than he can ever admit, but he also conceals a much greater threat to the seven hives – a wild card no degree of statistical analysis could have prophesised. This threat takes the unlikely form of a thirteen-year-old called Bridger. For how will a world that has banished God deal with a child who can perform miracles?