After a spaceship crashes into the planet of Tonath, the lone occupant survives and fights his way to sunlit part of the planet.

When a passing freighter finds him and takes him to the Western Starshift Institute of the Way, where the Teacher rules the sunlit part of the planet, Tonath is a planet being torn apart by the forces of nature, and only the Teacher can predict the movement of the stars and interpret the prophecies.

Will the Teacher be able to recognize True Man and True Foe in time to save Tonath from a thousand years of burning?