Ada Lang, the California Republic’s foremost scientist, takes her nephew on a cross-country trip to Maryland, seeking a nuclear device she’d left behind long ago—a device so powerful that it could not only change the fate of the Republic, but could destroy the world. What she doesn’t know is that her enemies in the Archangelist States, ever patient, have been waiting thirty years for her to try.
Ada Lang, smarter than Einstein and cleverer than Tesla and Edison together on their best days, ventures into the Archangelist States of America to bring back a critical component of a nuclear bomb. There’s something she didn’t plan for, though: the Archangelists sentenced her to death long ago for heresy and want to see her swinging from a noose. And there’s something they didn’t plan for: it’s hard to outwit the world’s smartest person.
After Ada’s ill-considered plan to build a new and perfect world fails tragically, she and Mark, along with his friend Casey, cross the strange, frozen, and alien America they’ve found, trying to avoid war, marauders, and bandits while Ada tries to think of a way back to the world they know.
